


Of Starks and Gods

by Chex_Arright59, Inperialex, TrafalgarFrost5



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Marvel Universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 16:23:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 45,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15416889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chex_Arright59/pseuds/Chex_Arright59, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inperialex/pseuds/Inperialex, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrafalgarFrost5/pseuds/TrafalgarFrost5
Summary: What if Thor and Loki didn't just have each other growing up? What if Tony's reckless playboy tendencies came back to bite him in the ass? How would these new additions change our heroes stories? Will these changes be for the better, or worse?





	1. Phase 1

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings!
> 
> I am Comet and my friend is Frost. We've decided to create this shared account so we can share our (not so) little story which we are co-writing. Our personal accounts are Inperialex (mine) and TrafalgarFrost5 (Frost's). 
> 
> This story will consist of our two characters Aisley and Paisley going about their exciting lives in the universe we all know as Marvel. I will be writing Aisley's chapters and Frost will be writing Paisley's chapters. It will be a long journey for these two, but we promise to take good care of them...well, as good of care as we possibly can.
> 
> So, let's begin shall we?

 

All illustrations are drawn by Comet

 


	2. Introduction: Paisley

The room is dark, various scientific machines humming and lighting up, giving the silent room life. At a cluttered desk in the middle of the room sits a young woman with short ginger hair, her pale face bathed in an eerie blue glow as she looks at a holographic screen.

Beeping suddenly fills the room. The blue turns to red as giant letters flash across the screen: POSITIVE MATCH.

 **“Ms. Paisley, the DNA results are a positive match”** an artificial voice sounds, causing the young woman to sigh as she looks at the results.

“Yes, I can see that B.A.S.I.S., thank you” she mutters, biting her lip as she looks over the information again. She’s checked it five times now and it comes back the same every time. It was just a hypothesis, yet it proved to be correct.

“Stark.”


	3. Introduction: Aisley

Her feet were aching and the ceremony wasn’t even halfway over. As soon as Thor Odinson was crowned king she knew her fellow Asgardians would celebrate for days, drinking and laughing as they always did.

Except for Aisley. Instead of partying, she would be guarding her now-king, Thor, and her best friend, Loki, just as she was always raised to do. Throughout her whole life she had been protecting the princes of Asgard, swearing to never let anything happen to them. And now here she was. Watching the blond prince show off as he walked towards his father who was standing in front of the large golden throne.

“Typical,” Aisley whispered to herself as she watched Thor throw his silver hammer into the air and catch it, only to wink at those who were watching. She didn’t think anyone had heard little comment her until she heard a slight chuckle come from her right. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a smirk grow on the dark-haired prince’s face, emerald eyes glancing at her in amusement. She couldn’t help but smile after that.

 _‘Focus Aisley,’_ she thought to herself. She shook her head and forced herself to focus on the ceremony, blonde bangs falling in front of her freckled face. She needed to make sure the princes of Asgard were safe.

This day almost felt unreal to her. Aisley had been their guard since she was a child _._ She grew up with them. Thor would always discuss this day with his brother and her, dreaming of one day becoming a king. Aisley and Loki would tease, insisting the only thing he was the king of was ‘the king of showing off.’ And now, the day of his coronation had come. The trio had grown up to become what they are now. A prince of mischief, a soon-to-be king, and a knight.

Her thoughts of her past were quickly snapped away when she heard Odin whisper something.

“Frostgiants.”

Suddenly everything was a haze of yelling and panicking. The next thing Aisley knew, the king was rushing towards the trophy room just beneath the throne room. Her instincts took over as she ran with them, making sure to stay two steps ahead of the princes. As they entered she let out a gasp and a small “oh no.” The Casket of Ancient Winters, the very item that declared peace between the Frostgiants and the Asgardians, was missing. This was not going to end well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps she should have brought her coat. This dastardly planet was dark and covered in snow. Aisley’s pale skin was now pink from cold winds chafing her skin. She could see her own breath as she let out a sigh. This was a terrible idea. Come to the planet of the Frostgiants and let Thor punch his way out of the situation just as he always does. She should have never come, but she had to. It was part of her duty as their personal royal guard.

“Brother have listened to you.”

Aisley jumped as she heard a faint voice from behind her, sighing of relief upon realizing it was only Loki. “What?”

“Thor should have listened to you when you told him not to do this,” Loki said again. “You’re our guard after all. You know what’s best for our safety.”

Aisley let out a chuckle of slight annoyance. “Yes, well…you know how your brother is. Stubborn. Arrogant,” she said, then paused. “But do not tell him I said that. I’m not allowed to say these things while on duty.”

A small laugh came from Loki’s lips. “As always, your secret is safe with me.”

Soon they approached the king of the Frostgiants, Laufey. A huge, blue man sitting upon his throne with a smug face. After Thor and Laufey bickered back and forth for a while, the group suddenly became surrounded by other Frostgiants.

“Fantastic,” Aisley rolled her eyes and mumbled to herself as she reached for her sword’s handle. She then joined the battle that the warrior three were already taking part in.

It was a pathetic fight, really. Swords swinging, cutting, limbs being chopped off. All things she was used to. A smile even began to form on her face as the adrenaline of the fight flowed through her. She has prepared for these situations her entire life thanks to Frigga. To her, this was all fun.

But one thing she was not prepared for was the expression on Loki’s face when he saw his pale pigment turn icy blue after a Frostgiant grabbed him. Mere moments after, she was chopping the creature’s arm off with her sword. It pained her to look up and see a scared and confused Loki staring directly at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Banished? Thor was being _banished?!_

Aisley knew what Thor did was wrong and quite extreme, but she never thought it was that bad. But Odin was being persistent, even ignoring his wife’s words. He insisted Thor needed to learn his lesson, but would banishing him really do that?”

“My king, if I may—” the young knight started to speak her opinion, but was quickly cut off.

“Silence! You will not speak unless spoken to,” Odin said sternly.

“But my king, as Thor’s royal guard I—”

“I said silence!” Odin said even more forcefully. “Thor shall be banished and you are _not_ to follow him do you understand? I will not let the opinion of a mere warrior affect my decision.”

Aisley tightened her fist, feeling her fingernails dig into her skin. “Yes, my king,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Good. Now leave me. I wish to speak to my son alone.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ailsey watched as the tall raven-haired prince paced the room, his mind clearly in disarray. He had been talking to her for hours about his true parentage and his true form. And she sat quietly at the table and listened, because she knew that’s exactly what he needed at this moment.

Suddenly he paused his rambling and turned to her with a serious face, emerald eyes staring straight through her. “Did you know?”

There it was again. The piercing feeling that went straight through her heart. “I-I,” she stumbled, unable to find her words.

“Tell me, Aisley,” Loki said in a stern yet pleading voice.

 “I was sworn to secrecy, my prince,” she admitted, hanging her head in shame. “I thought I was protecting you. I wanted to tell you, I did, but I—”

Her aqua eyes lingered back up to the prince as she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“It’s alright,” he said calmly as he released her shoulder. “You’re not truly the one who was keeping this secret from me.” He sighed as he pulled up a chair next to her. “This is all just a bit hard to believe. It’s all happening so quickly. Hel, I’m surprised you still agreed to be our guard even after you found out about my heritage.”

Aisley raised an eyebrow at him. “What? You think blue skin and red eyes are going to cause me to think differently of you?” she said in a joking manner. “Goodness Loki, I think you’re going mad.”

A smile formed upon her prince’s lips. “You’re the mad one for liking me even in my other form,” he joked back.

“Perhaps,” she chuckled. “Or perhaps we’re all a bit mad.”


	4. Avengers - Paisley

“Coulson, your job is Stark. Romanoff is to get Banner” Fury orders, looking over his screens as he reads where they’re all located, specifically where they’ve been monitoring Steve Rogers. “I’ll get The Captain. Inform Romanoff of the situation and move out” he says before turning and leaving himself.

“Sir. Which Stark?” Coulson asks, making Fury pause. “Tony. I’ve got the doctor” with that he leaves.

Coulson sighs, looking at the screen with the data they’ve collected for Stark; both Starks.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

‘Dead!’ by My Chemical Romance plays loudly through a small blue house on the outskirts of Brooklyn, as Dr. Paisley Chase dances around the kitchen, making herself a BLT.

“’And if your heart stops beating, I'll be here wondering. Did you get what you deserve? The ending of your life. And if you get to heaven. I'll be here waiting, babe! Did you get what you deserve? The end, and if your life won't wait then your heart can't take this!’”

Paisley belts out the lyrics, her red curls bouncing and getting in her eyes, but she could care less as she continues on, completing the sandwich as she pours herself a glass of water and heads for her library just as the chorus hits.

“’La, la, la, la, la! La, la, la, la, la, la! La, la, la, la, la, la, la! Well come on, la, la, la, la, la! La, la, la, la, la, la! La, la, la, la, la, la, la! Oh, motherfucker!’”

Just like in any good spy movie, Paisley approaches a bookshelf on her far wall saying, “B.A.S.I.S. open up!”

 **“Voice recognized. Access granted Paisley Chase,”** an artificial voice calls out as the bookcase turns transparent as if a hologram. Paisley grins and steps through the temporarily transparent books as she enters an elevator, Dead still playing overhead.

“’If life ain't just a joke, la, la, la, la, la! Then why are we laughing? La, la, la, la, la, la! If life ain't just a joke, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! Then why are we laughing? If life ain't just a joke, la, la, la, la, la! Then why are we laughing? La, la, la, la, la, la! If life ain't just a joke, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! Then why am I dead? Dead!’”

As the song comes to an end, the elevator doors open to reveal a lab full of high tech scientific machines. Paisley hums to herself as she moves to the middle of the room and sets down her food. “Mama’s here! Everybody wake the fuck up!” she calls, ‘Mama’ by My Chemical Romance now playing through the room as it begins to light up. Holographic screens appear all over as Paisley grabs a spin-chair and takes a seat, biting into her BLT while her tech warms up.

It doesn’t take long.

Paisley opens a drawer and pulls out a pair of reading glasses and a normal-ish looking watch minus it’s buttons along the sides of the face. She places it on top of her desk, as the desk scans it. A screen pops up with a 3D model of the watch. Paisley places the reading glasses on her nose as she gets to work, moving the watch around on the screen, taking apart the hologram version instead of the real one sitting in front of her.

“B.A.S.I.S. show me the inside of the teleporter. I don’t like how many buttons there are, let's reduce them or have an expansion plate to hide some of the functions…perhaps another hologram screen?” she says, mouth full of her sandwich.

 **“Sure, sure,”** the artificial voice sighs, the watch on the display screen turning transparent to show its complex inner workings. Just as Paisley’s getting into it, a screen pulls up to the left, showing the front of the house, a man in a long black trench coat and eyepatch standing at the door, knocking.

 **“Ms. Paisley, there appears to be a pirate at the door,”** B.A.S.I.S. informs her. Paisley smirks, taking a sip of her water, recognizing the face of Director Fury. He had tried to recruit her a few times. “Mute music,” snapping Paisley activates the communication mic. “I have a mine right under that welcome mat you’re standing on, Eyepatch. Tell me what you want. No tricks or I’ll blow you up.”

Fury looks towards the camera and gives her an unimpressed look. “If it were that easy, I’d of been dead a long time ago,” he yells, glaring at the camera with his single eye.

“I suppose you’re right. Come right down” she smirks, the welcome mat dissolving as Fury stands on a glass surface, an activated mine right under it. Fury still looks unimpressed, making Paisley sigh and roll her eyes. “You’re no fun,” she whines as the mine hologram disappears, along with the glass, causing Fury to drop down a tunnel slide.

Paisley smirks, seeing his shocked face as a panel opens in her lab. Fury falls from it and right on top of an air mattress. “Welcome, Eyepatch, to my evil lair!” Paisley declares as a thunder sound effect plays through the room.

Again, Fury is unimpressed.

“Do you ever smile?” she asks, taking off her glasses and placing them on her head as she slumps down in her seat.

“No,” is his one-word reply.

Paisley rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “Alright, what do you want?” she asks.

“To recruit you for the Avengers Initiative,” he says, placing his hands in his pockets.

Paisley blinks. “Avengers? What the hell would I be avenging?” she asks.

“The Earth, you and others. I’m building a team of sorts” he says, unblinking.

Paisley nods slowly. “And you need me…why?” she asks.

“You might not be well known, but S.H.I.E.L.D. makes it a point to know everyone that could potentially become dangerous. Your scientific work with vibranium is unparalleled, even S.H.I.E.L.D. can’t figure out how you’ve obtained so much,” Fury says, looking down at the thick beaded bracelet on Paisley’s wrist, obviously made of vibranium and covered in white symbols.

Paisley shrugs. “I don’t answer to anyone. A secret is well kept when one has no one to talk to,” she says, smirking at how Fury thinks she’s wearing a bracelet when in fact it’s a holographic communicator. A gift from her supplier that normally wouldn’t work outside of the country it’s from. With the amount of vibranium under Paisley’s lab, however, it works beautifully and helps her to contact her supplier with ease.

Vibranium has always been a material that absorbs kinetic energy. That’s all S.H.I.E.L.D. knows about it. However, any tiny bit of physics knowledge will tell you that that’s non-Newtonian. You can’t just absorb energy, you have to change it into something else. So, to the rest of the world, they only know vibranium as something that can absorb energy. But to the scientists Paisley discovered in Africa, they not only know that vibranium will take in energy, but they know how to get the energy back out.

“We lost a power source called the Tesseract, I need your help to track it down,” he explains. Paisley nods slowly, it sounded fun, better than sitting in her lab for hours on end waiting on her supplier to skype her. The mailman barley comes anymore, too many experiments…

Not her fault he was a wuss.

“…Alright. When do I start?” she asks, standing from her chair as she brushes off her black hoodie. “Pack a bag, someone will be by to get you tomorr-”

“that’ll take too long, I could change my mind. Let me grab my shoes and we can leave now, everything I could ever need is in my pocket,” Paisley smirks, patting a small bulge in her hoodie pocket. Fury looks towards said unidentified object before nodding. He needed her for his plans to run smoothly.

“Alright, but we’re going to make a stop before heading back to the Helicarrier,” he informs her.

Paisley nods. “Fair enough.” She grabs the watch from the table in front of her, the screen instantly disappearing, before putting it on and grabbing her food. “B.A.S.I.S., lock up for me and transfer to my cell.” The duo head towards the elevator promptly.

 **“Alright, see ya later, Ms. Paisley,”** B.A.S.I.S. says as the lab starts to power down.

“Your tech reminds me of someone else I know, Dr. Chase,” Fury comments.

Paisley glances at him as the elevator moves up, taking a sip of her water. “Is that so? Who?” she asks as they reach the top and exit the elevator.

  
“Tony Stark,” Fury shrugs, watching Paisley carefully.

“Really? I had hoped to be more advanced than the playboy philanthropist. my A.I. actually has a personality,” she brushes off as they enter the kitchen area.

Paisley puts the rest of her BLT in the fridge, still on the plate, before downing the rest of her water and leaving the empty cup by the sink. Fury watches her the whole time.

“Let me grab my shoes and I’ll be ready to go,” she says, leaving Fury by the door to the kitchen as she grabs a pair of black, worn down combat boots. Slipping them on, she tucks the laces into the side of her shoes, too lazy to tie them before she grabs her cell phone and jogs back to where she left Fury.

“Alright. Take me to your alien ship. I’d say leader, but you are the leader,” she grins. Fury doesn’t even chuckle as he opens the door and steps out.

“Sour Puss,” Paisley mutters as she exits the house, locking up before she follows Fury to a black SUV. “How inconspicuous. You know, all the great action movies had these. You’re not very secret” she sighs.

Fury rolls his eye as he gets in the passenger seat, an agent already in drivers. “Get in, Dr. Chase. We have another stop before we head to the carrier,” he informs her.

Paisley rolls her eyes before getting in, curious as to what this stop is.


	5. Avengers - Aisley

She hadn’t slept in six days. For months her sleeping patterns had been awful, going weeks without rest and only sleeping for mere hours when she did. She failed her duty of royal guard. Her best friend was no longer on Asgard. The only person she had now was Heimdall. Thor was off fighting monsters on other planets and Loki…Loki was gone. _Gone._ And it was all her fault.

Tears began to stream down Aisley’s face once again as she remembered the sight of her prince letting go of his brother’s hand. Falling into the vast pit of space. She tried her best to save him. Her whole life, she tried to let him know how important he was to her. But she failed. And now he was dead because of her.

She snapped out of her traumatic thoughts upon hearing Heimdall’s voice. She had been sitting on the steps of the yellow circle that held the sword which allowed her fellow Asgardians to travel from realm to realm, keeping the gate keeper company as she so often did. Though perhaps this time it was _him_ keeping _her_ company. She didn’t have many other people to talk to, after all.

“I can see him,” said the golden-eyed man.

Aisley raised an eyebrow at him in confusion. “See who?” she asked.

“Loki,” Heimdall answered simply.

Chill bumps formed on her pale skin as he said the name. Loki? Alive? It wasn’t possible…

“He’s on earth,” the man continued after getting no response from the young knight. “Attempting to rule over the humans.”

Yes, that was Loki alright. “He’s…he’s _alive?”_ Aisley said with a hopeful tone, but that quickly turned into rage. “He’s alive?!” Before another sentence could stumble out of her mouth she turned and marched towards the castle, her plum purple cape billowing behind her.

Heimdall couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. That girl had a temper, and he knew Loki was in for an earful if Odin allowed her to go to earth.


	6. Avengers - Paisley

After a quick stop to an apartment building in the city, where Paisley was told to wait in the car “like a good girl” as Fury put it, they took off again. This time to an abandoned building were a helicopter with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo was waiting for them on the roof to take them to the Helicarrier.

Paisley remained as behaved as possible. She didn’t even play her music, just sat patiently until they reached the final destination; a giant metal watercraft holding several jets, helicopters, army jeeps, tanks, you name it.

“Impressive. Though, I expected more from something called a Helicarrier,” Paisley shrugs.

Fury smirks.

“Just wait till tomorrow, that’s when we’re leaving. You’re the first to arrive. Congratulations,” he says, voice not giving off any form of emotion.

“How come I’m the first?” she asks, following him inside the high-tech facility.

“Everyone else needed to pack their bags” Fury shrugs, looking towards Paisley, whom has no bags of her own. Just reading glasses that are still atop her head, a watch and her phone…and the mysterious bulge in her pocket.

“I pack light, everything I need is here” she says, patting her hoodie pocket containing the bulge. Though Fury is curious, he keeps his questions to himself, instead directing Paisley to her room. “It’s like a prison cell,” Paisley muses as she enters the spare room. Only holding a bed and a door that leads to what she hopes is a bathroom.

“It not meant to stay in, only sleep in,” Fury informs her.

“I suppose you’re right” she mutters, pulling out a small metal box from her pocket. “B.A.S.I.S., activate tiny house.”

 **“Sure thing,”** B.A.S.I.S.’ voice calls from Paisley’s phone as she puts the box down in the center of the room.

Electrical currents run over the metal device as it grows and expands piece by piece. “Friend of mine let me borrow some of her tech ideas and I improved them,” Paisley explains to Fury’s emotionless face.

When the box stops growing, it’s about the size of a foot locker. “Thanks, B.A.S.I.S.” Paisley calls as she opens the box, showing a bunch of black clothing, mostly MCR t-shirts and hoodies with black jeans. “See, I came prepared,” she smirks, pulling off her hoodie, revealing a plain black t-shirt with a white MCR logo on it, as she swaps it for a dark grey button-down shirt. “Alright. Show me to my lab” she says as she closes the box.

Fury nods, heading out the door once more, “it’s not just your lab. You’ll be working with two others,” he says as they walk.

Paisley groans. “I don’t work well with others, Eyepatch.”

“You’re a fast learner. I’m sure you’ll adapt,” Fury says.

Paisley glares at him but then stops walking completely as he says, “You’ll be working with Dr. Banner and Tony Stark.”

Fury stops when he sees she’s not following. “Are you coming or not?” he asks.

“Not. You didn’t tell me I’d be working with _him_!” she seethes, teeth clenched tight and shoulders rigid.

“That’s because it wasn’t important. Still isn’t. Put your personal issues aside and do this for the safety of the world,” Fury practically declares.

“I am not one of your agents,” Paisley growls, marching past Fury as she enters a lab right in front of them, knowing it’s where she and her… _partners,_ will be working.

“No, you’re not. But as a part of the Avengers Initiative you do answer to me,” Fury informs her.

Paisley rolls her eyes. “I’m doing this because I’m bored. If it ceases to hold my interest, I will leave without batting an eye. Lucky for you I think the good doctor is cute, from the footage I’ve seen, so I’m more likely to stay,” she shrugs. This makes Fury blink in surprise. “What? You think I’m still here to save the world? Hell no, I’ve wanted to meet Dr. Banner for a long time, this is my chance. He’s very hard to track down,” she smirks, happy that she’d caught Fury off guard.

After that exchange, Fury leaves so Paisley can get more acquainted with the room. “This place is so low tech Shuri would cry,” she mutters as she looks around, pulling out her cell phone. “Alright, B.A.S.I.S., set us up.” She places the phone on the table as it expands, just like the box, till it turns into a complex platform displaying five different screens, two small ones on the left and two small ones on the right while there’s one large one in the center.

The two left screens show some information on the other Avenger recruits that she’d gotten from S.H.I.E.L.D. while the right two screens show tesseract information, one of which was searching for the tesseract using spectrometers Paisley highjacked and set to search for gamma rays, narrowing down the field for where the cube was.

The large screen however, displays her watch and all its innerworkings.

Nodding, Paisley moves the reading glasses from her head to her nose as she takes off her watch and starts working on it, occasionally flipping to a new piece of information on the side screens as she uses the labs tools to fiddle with her tech.


	7. Avengers - Aisley

“Both of your sons are on Midgard, one of them attempting to take over the earth, and you’re refusing to allow me to go down there and do my duties?!” Aisley exclaimed. She knew she was not allowed to talk back to her king that way, but it never stopped her before and it certainly wasn’t going to stop her now. He was being unreasonable.

“Your job is to stay here on Asgard and protect the princes from any harm,” said Odin, his rough voice echoing throughout the empty throne room.

“But the princes are elsewhere! How am I supposed to do my job if I can’t even be near them?!” Aisley argued.

“She makes a point, my king,” Queen Frigga said in her usual calm tone.

Odin looked towards his wife, then back at Aisley. “I’ve had enough of this. You are to stay on Asgard as to not cause any more chaos. Is that understood?”

Aisley growled. She couldn’t believe her own king could be such a fool. “Yes, my _king,”_ she said, trying and failing to fake a kind tone

As she marched away, she clenched her fists. Her king’s orders were not going to stop her. Later that night once she was off duty and everyone else in the castle seemed to be asleep, she headed to her room and slipped on an olive-green leather one-piece which covered her slim torso and legs. She often used this as something to wear beneath her armor. Next, she slipped on her silver metal boots and arm cuffs, as well as her chainmail skirt. Once she draped her purple cape over her shoulders, she headed off to the weaponry room.

It took Aisley a couple of minutes to decide which weapon to go with. Bow and arrow? No, she had terrible aim. Bow staff? No, not practical enough. Soon she came across her favorite weapon: a shiny silver sword with a crimson handle. This sword had accompanied her in many of her previous battles and had yet to fail her. She even took the liberty of naming it Cherry. It was a happy day when Frigga passed this very sword down to her. She promised to take good care of it and, so far, she had kept that promise.

“You have yet to fail me. I trust that you will not fail me now,” Aisley said quietly as she rubbed her fingers across the sword’s cold metal. She then looked around to make sure she was alone. “I have to stop speaking to inanimate objects.”

Putting her sword into its scabbard, she let out a deep sigh. This idea was madness, and her plan was awful. Heimdall would never agree to this. But she had to try. She had to protect her princes.

Her blonde shoulder-length hair flowed behind her as she walked along the rainbow bridge, her metal boots clanking with every step. Soon, she approached the gate keeper. As usual, he stood facing the Bifrost with the sword’s handle safely between his palms.

“Heimdall, I need your help,” Aisley said. Before she could manage to explain her plan, the golden-eyed man spoke.

“I know what you are going to say. And might I remind you that this would be treason to the throne,” he said, his deep voice booming within the spherical building.

Aisley’s blue eyes lingered down towards her feet. “I know. It’s incredibly risky. But this is something I have to do.”

Heimdall was silent for a moment before saying “I cannot disobey my king’s orders…but perhaps it is time for my break. I’m going to trust you with my sword until I return.” He gave a wink before walking towards the castle, his back facing Aisley the whole time. She couldn’t help but smile as she grabbed the sword’s handle and twisted it.


	8. Avengers - Paisley

The lab doors open. An older man with short curly brown hair and a deep purple button up shirt walks in curiously, a redheaded agent with him.

They both pause right at the door, the man wincing slightly at the loud music playing over head as Paisley continues to fiddle with the watch. Her hair is in a messy bun and she’s clearly unaware of the new presence in the room.

 **“Ms. Paisley, foreign entities have entered the temporary lair again,”** B.A.S.I.S. sounds from the display screen Paisley’s currently working on.

“Tell the agents to scram. I am not hungry, I am not tired, I’m busy,” Paisley mumbles around the screwdriver in her mouth.

“I’m not an agent,” the man says, placing his hands in his pockets.

Paisley whips around, her reading glasses sliding down her nose when she spots the man and agent. “B.A.S.I.S. mute music… No, you most certainly are not. Is it the next day already? Paisley Chase, pleasure to meet you Dr. Banner, I love your work. Especially a fan of how you turn into a giant green rage monster. Have you seen the footage? It’s pretty spectacular,” she complements, causing both people to pause.

“Spectacular isn’t the word I’d use,” Banner says, obviously uncomfortable with the topic of the Hulk.

The unidentified female agent glances at Banner, wondering if he realized Paisley had flirted with him in her own way.

Paisley blinks, chuckling as she moves her reading glasses to sit on her hair once more. “Really? He’s something else, you shouldn’t be hesitant about such a magnificent being. Who knows, we might be able to learn a lot from him. Why shun him because he’s different? Differences define us. Everyone deserves love and attention, no matter how diverse,” she comments, making Banner pause. No one’s ever talked about the Hulk like that before.

“I’m Agent Romanoff. It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Chase,” the agent suddenly says. Paisley looks over at her and nods.

“Nice to meet you too, fellow redhead. And blue eyes? We’re practically family, please, call me Paisley. Both of you,” she adds, nodding towards Banner.

Banner nods, a small smile on his face. “Bruce.”

Paisley nods back, placing her hands in her pockets. Agent Romanoff looks between the two of them, a smirk on her face before she wipes it off. “You can call me Natasha. I’ll be going now, good luck with your search,” she says before leaving.

Paisley grins, spinning to face the good doctor as he looks over her screen and the watch. “What’s this?” he asks, not touching anything, just in case.

“A work in progress, something to do when my mind’s racing and I have nothing to do. It’s a teleporter. Hopefully by the time it’s done I’ll be able to travel between worlds, not just cities,” she smirks.

Banner looks at her, stunned. “It can travel to cities? That’s very impressive. How does it work?” he asks, engrossed with the new technology.

Paisley bites her lip as she steps up to him. “Locks onto satellite information and drops me off at the coordinates I punch in. I’m working on it locking onto genetic signatures, so I can find certain people no matter where they are,” she beams. Banner nods, amazed by the level of technology she’s trying, and succeeding, at making.

“Brilliant, that’s amazing. No wonder they recruited you,” he praises.

Paisley shrugs. “I guess. It’s nowhere near as impressive as your genetic research. You’re the smartest in your field,” she says back.

Banner looks down at his feet, chuckling. “Don’t doubt yourself. I might be good in my field but yours is revolutionary. This is big,” he says, gesturing towards the watch.

Paisley smiles. “It can also tell time,” she laughs, making Banner laugh too.

Paisley’s heart flutters at his laugh, causing her to pause as she looks down. “L-let’s look for that Tesseract, yeah?”

“Of course,” Banner says, turning to his desk as he sets up shop.


	9. Avengers - Paisley

Loki’s been apprehended. Loki, a freaking god from Norse legends, is real!

His scepter laying on the counter as Paisley and Banner examine it.

Paisley sighs, rubbing her face as she looks over the data displayed on her screen.

“That him?” Banner suddenly asks from his spot, eyes locked on a group of guards passing the lab. Paisley looks out the glass doors, spotting a tall man with slicked back black hair and a strange black and green outfit.

“I guess so. Looks alien,” Paisley shrugs, watching as the man grins at Banner, mischief dancing in his emerald eyes. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“You and me both,” Banner mutters, rubbing his forehead as he watches Loki until he disappears.

The doors suddenly open, revealing Natasha. “You’re needed on the bridge. Both of you,” she says, glancing from Banner to Paisley.

“Best not keep them waiting. Let’s go, Bruce,” Paisley sighs, deciding to leave her tech out as she pushes her glasses up into her hair.

“Ladies first,” Bruce says with a small nervous smile, gesturing for Paisley to go ahead of him as they exit the lab.

“Who says chivalry is dead?” Paisley winks as she walks ahead of him, pausing right outside the door so they can walk side by side. Natasha in front of them, a smirk back on her face.


	10. Avengers - Aisley

There was a loud thud on top of the Helicarrier as it shook, causing papers and lab equipment to fall onto the floor.

“Sir, there is an unidentified object on top of the Helicarrier,” Maria Hill informed her boss as she scanned one of the computer screens in attempt to see what was atop the ship.

“Yeah, I realize, but it’s not exactly an object,” Nick Fury responded impatiently from the brig in which he had just interrogated Loki. He then looked up into the camera, knowing his new recruits were watching. “Does anyone happen to have a… _friend_ who was planning to drop by?”

The group raised their eyebrows and exchanged confused looks just as the nearest elevator opened. The doors revealed a tall, slim young woman wearing a purple cape, and just before any agents could jump in attack, Thor spoke up.

“Aisley!” he beamed, his voice booming throughout the room. This only angered the female Asgardian even more. “It’s good to see you my friend! Everyone, this is Aisley, she’s Loki and I’s royal guard back on Asgard.” His smile quickly vanished and he stopped his rambling as soon as he noticed the girl’s deathly glare. “O-Oh and she seems to be quite upset.”

“Where is the other one?” Aisley said immediately, gritting her teeth.

The room was silent for a good five seconds before Agent Hill spoke up. “Excuse me, do you think you can just come in here and—”

“I said,” Aisley interrupted, speaking more roughly now. She quickly drew her sword and held it up to Hill’s neck. “Where. Is. Loki?”

Again, the room was silent until a small redheaded girl dressed in dark clothing and glasses finally piped up. “He’s downstairs. In the brig,” she said with a mischievous smirk upon her face.

“Thank you, fiery-haired mortal,” Aisley said as she put her sword back in her holster.


	11. Avengers - Paisley

Banner and Paisley enter the bridge chuckling, Paisley having just told a cheesy science joke.

“I see you two are getting along,” Natasha says, eyeing the two scientists. Paisley grins and nods, looking around to see who all she’s dealing with. She’s surprised when she sees Captain America; a nameless bulky man with long golden hair; Natasha; and Agent Maria Hill.

Bruce gestures to a chair at the end of the table, away from everyone else. Paisley gladly sits in it as he claims the chair right next to her. She keeps her head down, trying to avoid the attention of everyone as she scoots closer to Bruce.

Everyone turns to a monitor on the wall, watching as Fury interacts with Loki.

“It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me,” the cocky god of mischief smirks.

“Built for something a lot stronger than you,” comes Fury’s dry reply.

Paisley narrows her eyes. They couldn’t be talking about Bruce, could they?

“Oh, I've heard,” Loki grins, looking into the camera.

Paisley frowns, glancing at Bruce to see him looking intently at the monitor. Outraged, Paisley grinds her teeth together. How barbaric! They couldn’t treat Bruce that way! He couldn’t help it. Besides, he seemed like he was in control of Hulk. It was bullshit!

“The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?” Loki asks Fury with a smirk.

Oh, that was it! Paisley’s hands tighten around the arms of the chair she’s in, almost ripping the material with her grip. She was just about to march down there and end this pathetic god’s life when a warm hand gently takes hold of one of Paisley’s clenched ones, causing her to pause in her rage. Looking down, she sees a tanned hand covering hers, leading up a well-toned arm and then to the concerned face of Bruce.

“Are you alright?” he asks, rubbing his thumb soothingly over the back of Paisley’s hand, causing her to blush.

“Y-yes. I just don’t like what they’re implying. It’s barbaric, you’re human too, just a little different than most,” she hisses, her eyes enraged once more as she turns her hand over, linking their fingers together.

Bruce, despite her anger, gives a small smile. To see someone angry on behalf of him…it was heartwarming. Everyone usually agrees to lock him up. Anything to keep themselves safe. Paisley though…she seemed to want Bruce safe. “Thank you,” he says simply, knowing she’d hear the words unsaid.

Paisley smiles back, calming down when she sees the appreciation in Bruce’s eyes. From that very moment, seeing that small smile on the mellow doctor’s face, Paisley decides she’s going to watch over him. Keep him safe so he doesn’t have to be Hulk to defend himself.

Suddenly there’s a loud thud on top of the Helicarrier as it shakes, causing papers and lab equipment to fall onto the floor. Paisley watches as an agent stops playing Galaga to look around, confusion in his face. Why the hell was an agent playing Galaga anyway?

“Sir, there is an unidentified object on top of the Helicarrier,” Agent Hill informs her boss through her earpiece as she scans one of the computer screens in attempt to see what was atop the ship.

“Yeah, I realize, but it’s not exactly an object,” Nick Fury responds impatiently from the brig. He then looks up to the camera, knowing his new recruits were watching as he asks, “Does anyone happen to have a… _friend_ who was planning to drop by?”

The group exchanges confused looks just as the nearest elevator opens. The doors reveal a tall, slim young woman wearing a purple cape and, just before any agents can jump in and attack, Thor speaks up.

“Aisley!” he beams, his voice booming throughout the room. This causes Paisley to jump slightly, but then look at the female curiously. She thought her name was pretty cool, considering it was close to her own.

“It’s good to see you my friend! Everyone, this is Aisley, she’s Loki and I’s royal guard back on Asgard.” Thor’s smile quickly vanishes when he notices the girl’s deathly glare. “O-Oh and she seems to be quite upset.”

Paisley looks the female Asgardian up and down, assessing her. Was this friend or foe?

“Where is the other one?” Aisley demands immediately, gritting her teeth as she glares at Thor.

The room is silent for a good five seconds before Agent Hill dares to speak up. “Excuse me, do you think you can just come in here and—”

“I said,” Aisley interrupts, an edge to her voice, as she withdraws a sword from her hip before placing it against Agent Hill’s neck. “Where. Is. Loki?”

Again, the room is silent until Paisley raises the hand not intertwined with Bruce’s, a smirk playing on her face. She’s obviously very amused with this situation. “He’s downstairs. In the brig.”

“Thank you, fiery-haired mortal,” Aisley said as she put her sword back in her holster before storming off.

They all watch her leave while Thor winces lightly, most likely in fear for his brother, while Paisley grins. “That was hot. Can she stay?” she asks.

Bruce raises a brow at her but Paisley only winks and rubs the back of his hand with her thumb.

Steve looks at her incredulously. “She’s dangerous!” he yells.

“Aren’t we all?” Paisley retorts.

Thor looks her up and down, as best he can while she’s sitting, before smirking. “You don’t look very threatening, Fiery-haired mortal.”

Bruce places a calming hand on Paisley’s shoulder as she goes to get up.

“Let’s get back on topic, shall we?” Steve speaks up, turning to look back at the monitor. He sees that the female Asgardian, Aisley, has just now made it to the brig.

They watched as Loki looks up from his feet, his emerald eyes widening at the sight of his supposed guard. “Aisley,” he says with a wide smile, but just like Thor’s it quickly vanishes upon seeing the rage on her face. “Oh dear.”

Paisley blinks. Loki was different now. More…normal? Less arrogant.

Interesting.

“So, you are alive,” Aisley says upon seeing him.

Paisley can hear the restrained rage from the briefing room. Evidently, so could Thor. He seems to tense up at the Asgardian’s words.

“Sister, I—"

“Don’t! Don’t pull the sister card on me!” Aisley growls forcefully, her angry tone surfacing.

Paisley grins widely, wishing she had some popcorn right about now.

Aisley turns to Fury. “I request privacy with Loki,” she says, fire burning in her blue orbs, the yellow ring around them almost glowing.

Fury nods, not wanting to be on the receiving end of her rage as he exits, staying right outside of the room.

The monitor had gone black as Fury leaves, giving the female Asgardian the privacy she requested. The others in the room were left to stand in stunned silence. From both Fury’s interrogation and the appearance of Aisley.

“Damn, and it was just getting good” Paisley whispers.

Bruce smirks at Paisley’s remark before looking around. “He really grows on you, doesn't he?” he asks, releasing Paisley’s hand as he stands from his chair so he can pace.

“Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?” The Captain asks, looking towards the god of Thunder.

“He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract”

“An army? From outer space?” Steve asks.

Paisley rolls her eyes at his ignorance. Obviously, anything was possible at this point. Hello, the god of thunder was right next to the man! Taking a breath, Paisley calms herself. She must remind herself that it’s funny that he’s ignorant. She’s only upset because of Fury’s interrogation.

“So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for,” Bruce voices, fiddling with his glasses.

Thor turns to him, “Selvig?”

“He's an astrophysicist,” Bruce provides. Thor turns to him, frowning. “He's a friend.”

Natasha speaks up from her seat. “Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours.” A pinched look crosses her face, making Paisley raise a brow. This missing agent seemed to be close to Natasha for her to break a little at just mentioning them.

“I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here,” Steve says, turning in his chair slightly.

Paisley wonders about that to, keeping her mouth shut as she watches the minds around her work.

“I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him,” Bruce says, still fiddling with his glasses as he moves side to side. The amount of people in the room must be getting to him.

Paisley giggles at Bruce’s statement, rolling her eyes when Thor comes to Loki’s defense.

“Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he's my brother,” he states, a hard stare on his face as he looks around the room.

Natasha speaks up before Paisley can retort. “He killed eighty people in two days,” she says blandly, staring at the table.

Thor glances around. “He's adopted?” he asks more than states.

Paisley chuckles, this whole exchange really was entertaining.

“I think it’s about the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?” Bruce questions.

“It’s a stabilizing agent,” Paisley and someone else say in unison.

Everyone turns to the doorway as Tony Stark and Agent Coulson walk in together, Tony’s eyes immediately drawn to Paisley as they had just given the same answer.

Paisley looks away from him, her face suddenly pale.

Tony raises a brow at her expression before whispering more advice to Coulson then confronting the rest of the group, primarily Thor. “No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants,” Tony says, his mind looks to be running a mile a minute as he walks around, turning to the Agents on duty as he says “Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did!”

Paisley gives a small smile, she’s not the only one that saw the Agent playing video games.

Tony covers his eye as he looks around at the control panels. “How does Fury see these screens?” he asks.

“He turns,” comes Agent Hills dry response.

Tony looks around the monitors, everyone else distracted as he places a button sized electronical piece under Fury’s desk. Paisley blinks and looks around, was she the only one that noticed? What was that thing? It looked like a button sized hacking implant and, knowing Stark, it most likely was.

Tony notices her stare and winks before moving away from the desk. “Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube.”

Agent Hill looks at Tony, confused. “When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?”

“Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?” Tony asks looking around. Paisley blinks, she didn’t know there was reading, she just started working and researching about the Avenger members she didn’t know.

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asks in a bored kind of way, as if he didn’t like Tony. Paisley looked between the two. It was entirely possible.

Bruce paces around Paisley’s chair before pausing. “He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.”

Paisley nods, then nods again as Tony comes closer saying, “Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.”

Paisley grins and nods, but then stops, seeing that Tony was now right next to Bruce and her as Bruce says, “Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet.”

“Finally, someone who speaks English,” Tony says, he then looks down at Paisley’s seated form,“You caught all that?” he asks.

“Of course, it’s plain English to me,” she says, hesitant to talk to the man she’s researched for years.

Steve looks between the three. “Is that what just happened?” he asks, looking around to see if he was the only confused one.

Tony and Banner shake hands. A glimmer in their eyes shines as the mutual respect for each other shows.

“It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster,” Tony says with a grin.

Bruce glances down at Paisley. She’d said something similar earlier. “Thanks,” is his one-word reply.

“And you, Dr. Paisley Chase. I read your file last night, never heard of you but wow! You work with tech is very advanced for someone your age. It’s impressive, almost as good as me,” Tony says as he winks and holds out a hand for Paisley to shake.

Paisley’s heart stops as she reaches out a hand, shaking his larger warm hand with her small pale one. They were so different and yet…

“Thank you. I like to keep to myself,” she shrugs, retracting her hand as she places it in her lap, scooting away from him.

Bruce looks between the two, confused on why Paisley is suddenly so nervous, scared almost.

Paisley herself, is equally confused. She thought she’d be angry when she finally met Tony, wanting to slap him. Instead she panicked and froze.

At this point, Fury walks in with Aisley.

“Dr. Banner and Dr. Chase are only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join them,” Fury says to Tony.

Paisley stares at Aisley. She seems calm now, less hostile as the Asgardian warrior moves to stand beside Thor.

Thor gives her a smile, one she returns before looking around the room, pausing at Paisley who’s still staring.

They both blink then nod to one another in greeting, giving small friendly smiles.

“Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon,” Steve speaks up, gaining everyone’s attention.

Fury turns his attention to the captain. “I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

Thor looks confused. “Monkeys? I do not understand.”

Paisley chuckles, calming down from her previous shock and laughing even more when Steve says “I do! I understood that reference!” a proud look on his face.

Tony rolls his eyes at Steve before turning to Bruce and Paisley. “Shall we play, doctors?” he asks.

“let’s play some,” Bruce nods, looking down at Paisley as he gestures towards the doors. Paisley gives a final glance at Aisley before nodding as she stands.

“Yeah, sure” she mutters, making sure to stand next to Bruce and away from Tony as the three scientists leave.


	12. Avengers - Aisley

It didn’t take her very long to find the place in which they were holding Loki hostage. He was being kept inside of a huge glass dome for pete sake. As she approached his cell, she saw him pacing. He was in his black and green outfit, as usual, with his long dark hair slicked back. He seemed to have grown so much since they last spoke. Seeing him almost brought a vulnerability to Aisley. She had missed him greatly, and now he was right here in front of her. She wanted so badly to hug him and release the tears she was fighting back. But that wasn’t the point. He lied to her. Again. And this wasn’t a petty lie, no. He faked his own death. She missed him, sure, but she couldn’t help but feel angry with him.

As Loki looked up from his feet, his emerald eyes widened at the sight of his best friend. The sight of his bruised and battered face jabbed the warrior’s heart. “Aisley,” he said with a wide smile, but just like Thor’s it quickly vanished upon seeing the rage on her face. “Oh dear.”

Fury looked between the two, intrigued by the interactions and how Loki’s demeanor changed upon seeing this woman. Could he possibly have a friend he truly cares for? Perhaps this could make her a good asset on this mission.

“So, you _are_ alive,” Aisley said upon seeing the trickster god, ignoring the man with the eyepatch. These were the only words she could manage to get out in a civilized fashion. She attempted to mentally organize her thoughts but she felt so angry that she just couldn’t think straight.

“Sister, I—"

“Don’t! Don’t pull the sister card on me!” Aisley said forcefully, her angry tone surfacing. She refused to succumb to his silver tongue. She then turned to the bald man. “I request privacy with Loki,” she demanded, fire burning in her blue orbs, the yellow ring in them nearly glowing.

Fury nodded, not wanting to be on the receiving end of her rage. He exited, staying just outside of the room in case anything was to happen.

Once Fury was gone, Aisley rounded on Loki. “I thought you were dead! I couldn’t sleep for _weeks_ on end because of you! I missed you more than I missed anything in my entire life. My best friend was gone, and I was at risk of losing my place in the royal family! And now Heimdall tells me you’re alive and on Midgard?! How could you do this, Loki?!”

Loki’s frowned as Aisley went off on him. “I feared you would not understand,” he started. “And even if you did understand, I knew you would not agree. Besides, since leaving Asgard I…I’ve been places. Places I would not want you to see. I couldn’t risk you getting hurt.”

Aisley’s face burned from rage as she stomped her foot and ran her hands through her honey blonde hair, all while letting out a frustrated yell. “Why are you so _frustrating?!”_ she shouted, feeling a desperate need to throw something at the glass dome he was trapped inside of. “Of course, I don’t agree! I understand you want to be a king, but you are going about this all wrong! And...me?! Getting hurt?! That doesn’t matter! I am your _guard!_ It is _your_ safety that matters, not mine…”

Loki simply watched her tantrum unravel, a smug smile growing on his face. A part of him almost missed seeing her get so worked up like this. She was always emotional and short-fused. He had watched her temper cause a tantrum like this about a thousand times as they were growing up, but he never minded. That just meant she was passionate. Besides, life was no fun without a bit of chaos.

“So, you missed me?” he said once her angry yelling had toned down.

Aisley hated herself for breaking her angry exterior at that simple comment. She laughed, knowing she couldn’t possible stay mad at him forever. “I hate you,” she teased.

“I think we both know that’s a lie,” Loki chuckled.

She let out a sigh and paused for a few moments, then smiled as her blue eyes gazed up at him. “I’m going to go upstairs and attempt to befriend people, I may have threatened one of them on my way in…” she explained, noticing Loki’s eyebrows raising at the idea of her threatening these people’s teammate. “I’ll be back later, okay? Try not to cause too much trouble while I’m gone.”

Loki chuckled as he watched the young woman walk away. “No promises.”


	13. Avengers - Aisley

The man with the eyepatch, Agent Nick Fury, walked with Aisley back up to the room where everyone had been talking. As they walked through the pristine hallways, she wondered if his stern demeanor ever changed, though she couldn’t say much. She often walked stiffly with her hands behind her back, like now, and a serious facial expression thanks to her royal guard training back on Asgard.

“So, Aisley,” the man spoke up. Part of her wondered how he knew her name, but quickly remembered he had heard it during her exchange with Loki. “You’re Thor and Loki’s royal guard?”

“I am.”

“The princes have their own special guard, huh? You must be very strong in order to protect the both of them,” Fury said, leaving Aisley unsure about if that were a compliment or not. “I understand that Loki feels differently about you than he does about most other people. A bit more comfortable, perhaps. For this reason, I believe you can help us. If, of course, you’re willing to.”

Aisley raised her eyebrows, both confused and intrigued. “Help you?” Aisley asked simply. She didn’t speak much around this man. Not only was he intimidating, but he also strangely reminded her of her king. And heaven knows she did not like her king.

“Loki is trying to take over this planet with the help of his army. I’ve assembled this group of people in hopes to stop him,” Fury explains. “You seem to know Loki better than most of us. I suppose you would be a great amount of help to the team.”

Aisley pondered his offer for a moment as they entered an elevator, her blue eyes lingering to her feet. “It is my duty to protect Thor and Loki,” she said finally. “I understand that what Loki is doing can put both he and Thor in harm’s way, so I will help you stop him. But only on one condition.”

“And what is that condition?”

“You shall not kill my prince. Only capture him and return him to Asgard.”

Fury nodded. “Deal,” he said, then the elevator doors chimed open.

After stepping out into the meeting room, Fury listened for a moment. The three scientists seemed to have become acquainted with each other “Dr. Banner and Dr. Chase are only here to track the cube,” he reminded them, then turned to Tony. “I was hoping you might join them.”

Aisley scanned the room and noticed Thor standing near the star-spangled man. The two exchange smiles as she moved to stand next to him in a guard-like manor.

As the group continued to attempt to figure out Loki’s plan, Aisley sighed and blew a lock of golden hair from her face. She didn’t exactly want to be here in this sort of situation, but she knew it was her job to protect the princes. Even if it meant fighting against one of them. From the corner of her eye, she noticed blue orbs lingering on her.

Turning her head, she noticed that the fiery-haired mortal who helped her earlier was staring directly at her. Aisley couldn’t help but feel a bit of respect for her as she stared at the freckled face. She helped a stranger even when no one else was willing to. The two young women nodded towards each other and exchanged smiles. Perhaps this girl should be the first one she tries to befriend.

Aisley’s attention snapped towards the star-spangled man once again as he mentioned Loki’s scepter.

“Let’s start with that stick of his,” he said in a stern voice. “It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

Fury turned his attention to the man. “I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the cube.”

 _‘Tesseract,’_ Aisley mentally corrected him.

“And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys,” Fury continued.

Thor raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Monkeys? I do not understand—”

“I do!” the star-spangled man interrupted, pride showing on his face. “I understood that reference!”

Aisley noticed the sarcastic, bearded man roll his eyes at the star-spangled one, before turning to the firey-haired human and the quiet one. “Shall we play, doctors?” he asked. And with this, the trio left the table and headed upstairs.

As everyone went their separate ways, Aisley pondered upon the various ways in which she could attempt to befriend these people. Queen Frigga had always taught her that food would never fail as a peace offering. This brought a smile to her face.

“Excuse me,” she said, flagging down an agent who had been passing by. “Would you mind escorting me to the dining hall?”


	14. Avengers - Paisley

Paisley keeps her distance from the two scientists in front of her, not participating in their conversation as they enter the lab.

 **“Ms. Paisley, The Sperm Donor is within perimeter, emergency protocol activated,”** B.A.S.I.S. announces when they enter as all the screens disappear and the platform display starts to shrink back down into her phone, the watch resting on top of it.

Paisley quickly grabs the watch and puts it on before placing her phone in her shirt pocket, leaving Tony and Banner confused as they watch her. “Shy? Don’t like your tech on display, Doctor?” Tony asks with a grin. Banner tilts his head, confused at Paisley’s behavior while Paisley looks Stark up and down, curiosity in her eyes instead of the shock she displayed earlier.

She couldn’t help it. For years she’d heard his name, seen his face, thought she had to hate him. The thought of him made her angry…but now that she was alone with him (minus Bruce of course)…now she just felt lost and hurt, like a child.

“Hello, earth to, Hottie. You gonna stare at me all day, Sweetcheeks?” Tony asks, a crooked grin on his face as he tries to put the moves on her. Paisley blinks, the vulnerability gone as she strides up to him with a fiery glare and slaps him across the face, and damn did it feel good.

“OW! Geez, just say you’re not interested next time!” Stark says as he holds his cheek. She hits _really_ hard for her size.

“ _Never_ say that again. That’s wrong on _so_ many levels,” she growls, marching out of the lab and leaving two stunned geniuses behind.

“What the hell was that?” Stark asks.

Banner shrugs. “Maybe you wronged her in the past, you do know a lot of ladies” he suggests. Stark looks through the glass walls, watching Paisley stalk off.

“I don’t know,” he mutters. This felt different, she wasn’t a one-night stand, the idea appeared to appall her too much. She’s too young, he never even heard of her till last night. Her file was the smallest, only showing her work with advanced mechanical tech she’d created. Nothing else, nothing personal.

“I need to set up shop,” Stark mutters, seeing that his stuff had been brought in here as he sets up J.A.R.V.I.S. and Tesseract search engines. Banner watches him before heading to his own stuff, curious on why Paisley and Stark seemed so similar yet so different.


	15. Avengers - Paisley

Paisley returns to the lab a couple hours later with a bag full of green skittles, freshly showered. Black jeans, a Panic! At the Disco tank top, thick belt, her vibranium bracelet and her reading glasses perched atop her head per usual, her old combat boots beating against the floor as she struts in. “Worry not! I have arrived, you can all relax now!” she exclaims, popping a skittle into her mouth. Banner chuckles while Stark looks at her curiously.

“Back I see, are you going to hit me again?” he asks.

Paisley looks at him sheepishly. “Sorry about that my dude, call it a momentary loss of sanity. Skittle?” she asks, holding out the bag to him. Stark blinks, looking down at his own bag of blueberries.

“Sure, trade you,” he says, holding out the blueberries. Paisley grins, taking some of his snack as he takes some of hers, both throwing the morsels in the air and catching them in their mouths, in unison.

“So, what’d I miss?” Paisley asks Bruce. Bruce however, doesn’t hear her as he’s too busy looking between the two of them.

They might have different eye and hair colors, but they acted the same, and the shape of Paisley’s eyes and nose matched Stark’s to a tee.

She’s genius. Listens to loud music. Cracks jokes. Walks like him. Talks like him.

Banner blinks, there’s no way in hell…but could it be?

“Bruce? You ok?” Paisley asks as she places a calming hand on his shoulder.

Bruce blinks, looking down at her. She was shorter by a couple inches and young. “How old are you?” he asks.

Paisley raises a brow. “Twenty-two. Why, interested?” she asks with a wink. Banner doesn’t respond, making her frown. “Why do you ask?” serious this time as she steps back from him.

Banner looks between a confused Stark, 42 years old, and hesitant Paisley, 22 years old. Then her eyes widen slightly as she quickly glances at Stark before slightly shaking her head no, not to say anything.

Banner’s eyes widen. She was! And she knew!

And Stark didn’t.

Shit.

“Can I speak with you alone, Bruce?” Paisley asks as she grabs his arm and drags him out the room, towards the cafeteria she’d been showed to by an agent when she needed coffee.

“You’re his daughter!” Banner hisses in a whisper as they fast walk towards the cafeteria.

Paisley sighs and rolls her eyes. “Yes, now shut up. I don’t need Stark finding out. S.H.I.E.L.D. already knows and I don’t like it,” she growls.

“Why, shouldn’t he know that he has a daughter? A genius daughter?” he questions.

“From a drunken one-night stand that meant nothing to him? No thanks,” Paisley scoffs, hiding the childish vulnerability weighting down in her gut.

Bruce frowns. “Maybe he’ll be happy?” he shrugs.

Paisley chuckles. “Or freaked out that he’s a dad. Hello, he’s not very responsible. Lucky I’m an adult now and don’t need him…” she says, frowning when she remembers her fatherless childhood.

“You should tell him,” Bruce shrugs as they enter the cafeteria, getting three coffees before heading back towards the labs.

“Maybe…just so he knows…but I don’t know how to even do it right,” she sighs.

Bruce smiles and pats her shoulder awkwardly. “I’m here for you, just tell him,” he shrugs as they enter the lab.

“Tell who what?” Stark asks, looking up from his screen.

Paisley sighs, pulling out her phone as she sets it on her table. “Set us up B.A.S.I.S.” she says, watching as the phone transforms back into the display platform. Stark looks at it curiously, impressed by the tech.

“Did you make that?” he asks, walking around his desk and over towards hers as the five screens start to pop up. Paisley nods, taking off her watch as she places it on the platform, the large screen now displaying the watch’s information and details on it.

“Ms. Paisley, the Sperm Donor is within proximity. Should I shut down?” B.A.S.I.S. asks.

“No, stay on. It’s authorized” Paisley shrugs, handing Stark his coffee. Stark takes it, looking over the information on the screens, particularly the middle one.

“A teleporter? Compact into a wrist watch? Impressive,” he mutters.

Paisley shrugs.

“The voice, artificial intelligence?” Stark asks. Paisley glances at Bruce’s encouraging face as he sits back and watches before turning back to Stark and nodding.

“I call her B.A.S.I.S., stands for Bad-Ass Sassy Intelligence System,” she shrugs.

Stark grins. “Like J.A.R.V.I.S.,” he nods.

Paisley nods, remembering reading something about his computer system.

“You must really like my work to have tech like mine,” Stark smirks.

Paisley shrugs, looking down. “That or I’m a copy of you,” she says.

Tony laughs but stops when the other two don’t laugh. “What? Are you actually a copy of me?” he jokes.

Paisley glances at Bruce before shrugging. “Yeah you could say that…half of me. The other half is my mother. I believe the correct word for it is: offspring,” she shrugs.

Stark pauses, not seeing the humor in this. “Are you serious?” he asks, looking Paisley over. She looked nothing like him…wait, that was his father’s nose, and his mother’s eyes and lips…

“Oh my god,” he mutters. Taking a seat.

Paisley sighs. “Yeah. I found out about a year ago. You’d be amazed how easy it is to obtain a DNA sample from you. What with how much you sleep around, it was child’s play,” she chuckles, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere. “If it makes you feel any better, I checked five times.”

Stark blinks. “Who was it? Who’s your mother?” he asks.

Paisley shrugged. “Does it matter? You sleep around a lot. She passed away shortly after I was born. Gave me a name and I was off to foster care. Got adopted by a nice lady and stayed with her till I was fifteen. That’s when she passed away of brain cancer. I became an emancipated adult and graduated high school. Mastered college when I was seventeen. I’ve been doing my own underground projects for about 5 years now.”

Both men look at her, shocked.

She was a protegee, crazy smart.

“Wow,” is all Stark can say as he looks at his…daughter. That’s going to take some getting used to. Oh god, Pepper is going to kill him.

“Yeah,” Paisley shrugs. “Anyway. Past aside, let’s look for the Tesseract, yeah?” she asks, telling B.A.S.I.S. to pull up the world map as she tries to trace it with gamma, as Bruce suggested.

The three throw themselves into work, all in their own little worlds as their minds spin a mile a minute focusing on the Tesseract and thinking over everything that was just said.


	16. Avengers - Aisley

This green, jiggly substance was rather odd. It was transparent and appeared to be made of some sort of goo. After poking at it for a moment, one of the servants in the dining hall explained to Aisley that it was a popular dessert.

“This doesn’t appear to be edible,” she commented.

“It’s not exactly my favorite, but the others like it,” said the servant.

“Well in that case I shall take it all!”

“Whatever floats your boat, I guess.”

Once the Styrofoam bowl was filled with the odd substance, Aisley marched off to find the location of the fiery-haired mortal. It only took a few minutes of wandering up and down hallways before she finally spotted the laboratory where the three scientists were working.

As the doors slid open and the trio paused their work, the warrior thought it would only be courteous to greet them.

  “Hello! I’ve brought a bit of a peace offering from the dining hall downstairs. I, uh, realized my entrance earlier may have been…misleading….so I brought this bouncy sustenance,” she said with a smile, holding out the green goo. “I’m not quite sure what it is but it looks interesting.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you,” said the quiet scientist with a small smile. “It’s called Jell-O, you eat it.”

As the man explained the purpose of Jell-O, Aisley shook the bowl slightly and caused it to jiggle once again. Looking back up, she couldn’t help but notice that the redhead’s wide blue eyes had been staring down the food since she entered the room.

“I’m not much of a Jell-O person, unless alcohol is involved. So, Bruce? Paisley? Either of you a fan?” asked the sarcastic, bearded one.

 _‘Bruce and Paisley,’_ Aisley thought to herself. _‘I must memorize that.’_ She forced herself not to smile at the fact that the young woman’s name was like her own.

“JELL-O!” Paisley exclaimed, raising her hand. She paused for a moment. “I-I mean, yes. That’s very thoughtful of you, we’ll gladly accept your offering. All is forgiven.”

As the young woman took the Jell-O from Aisley’s hand, her eyes widened when she looked up at her. This was the first time Aisley realized she was taller than both Paisley and Bruce. Suddenly feeling insecure about her height, the goddess’ shoulders slumped a bit.

“My name’s Paisley Chase. It’s nice to meet you,” the youngest scientist grinned, offering a hand.

Aisley’s blue eyes shined at the introduction. This meant she had approached her new friends correctly, and she couldn’t help but feel proud of herself. Forgetting about her little insecurity, she rolled her shoulders back and introduced herself as well.

“’Paisley!’ That’s just like my name!” she exclaimed as she pulled the fiery redhead to her side and raised a fist to the air. “I am Aisley Darshanadottir, guardian of Prince Thor and Prince Loki! It is very nice to meet you, young mortal!”

“ _Very_ nice to meet you too,” the young woman smiled, her cheeks tinted pink.

“It’s nice that you’re making friends and all, but we need to get back to work” the sarcastic one said with a smirk as he gestured towards the electronic screens with some sort of miniature rod.

“Oh, my apologies,” Aisley said, lowering her voice as she released the young woman. “I must go find Thor anyways. I will leave you all to your work.” With that, she stepped out of the lab and marched off to find her fellow Asgardian.

Walking down the hallway, she couldn’t help but smile to herself. Her first interaction with this new team seemed to have went quite well. Turning a corner, she passed by the star-spangled man and grinned. He raised an eyebrow, but quickly returned the gentle smile.

Once Aisley wandered down a few more hallways and stepped down a flight of stairs, she found Thor talking with Son of Coul.

“Thank you. It's no accident, Loki taking Erik Selvig,” said Thor, clearly in the middle of conversation. “I dread what he plans for him once he's done. Erik is a good man.”

“Come Thor, it cannot be that bad,” Aisley interrupted as she approached the two men. “Loki is misguided, sure, but I could never imagine him torturing anyone. Especially someone useful to him like Selvig.”

“Selvig talks about you a lot,” said Coulson, recalling his first time meeting the Agardian. “You changed his life. You changed everything around here.”

“They were better as they were,” sighed Thor. “We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we...we come here battling like Bilchsteim.”

“Like what?”

“Bilchsteim? You know; huge, scaly, big antlers,” explained Thor.

“You don’t have those on earth?” Aisley asked.

“Don’t think so,” Coulson responded.

“They are repulsive, and they trample everything in their path,” said Thor as he proceeded to walk toward the enormous window in front of them. His demeanor changed as he grew lost in thought. “When I first came to earth, Loki's rage followed me here and your people paid the price. And now again…in my youth I courted war.”

“We are not at war,” Aisley stated quietly.

“That’s where you’re wrong. The war just hasn’t started yet.” The trio turned to see Nick Fury walking towards them, his eye directly on Aisley. Something about his stare made her feel tense. “You think you can make Loki tell us what the Tesseract is?”

“I suppose I could try—”

“No,” Thor interrupted Aisley with a stern voice. She could tell from the look in his eyes that his feeling of protection over the youngest Asgardian had begun to take over. “Loki's mind is far afield, it's not just power he craves it's vengeance upon me. There's no pain that would prize his need from him.”

“A lot of guys think that, until the pain stops,” Fury commented.

Aisley raised an eyebrow. “What exactly are you asking me to do?”

“I’m asking, what are you _prepared_ to do?”

“Loki is a prisoner,” Thor reminded Fury.

“Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?” Fury said, patience slowly fading.

Thor and Aisley exchanged glances. They may have been the only two people who have ever believed in Loki. But they knew what was coming, and they knew very well that the world would never be prepared for it.


	17. Avengers - Paisley

Bruce continuously scans with a gamma ray detection scanner on the scepter for radiation while Tony looks at his monitors, shifting and solving as many algorithms and equations as he can. Paisley busies herself with shifting between helping Bruce, Tony, and doing her own scans using B.A.S.I.S. and satellites she hacked into around the world.

The lab doors suddenly open, Aisley stepping in.

The three scientists pause in their work curious by the presence of the Asgardian warrior. Paisley stiffens, her eyes widen when she sees Aisley is carrying something.

“Hello! I’ve brought a bit of a peace offering from the dining hall downstairs. I, uh, realized my entrance earlier may have been… _misleading_ ….so I brought this bouncy sustenance,” she said with an innocent smile, holding out a plate of green Jell-O. “I’m not quite sure what it is but it looks interesting.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you” Bruce says with a hesitant smile, “it’s called Jell-O, you eat it,” he explains.

Paisley’s eyes seem to shine as she watches Aisley’s hands intensely, Tony seeming to be the only one to notice the odd reaction. Smirking, Tony steps forwards and says, “I’m not much of a Jell-O person, unless alcohol is involved so, Bruce? Paisley? Either of you a fan?”

Paisley immediately raises her hand, “JELL-O! I-I mean, yes. That’s very thoughtful of you, we’ll gladly accept your offering. All is forgiven” she says as she walks quickly up to the Asgardian and takes the Jell-O from her.

As Paisley takes the Jell-O she pauses, seeing that Aisley is a whole three inches taller than her. Feeling threatened by the height of the Amazonian looking woman. “My name’s Paisley Chase. It’s nice to meet you” she grins, extending a hand.

The Asgardian’s eyes brighten as her smile widens. “’Paisley?’ That’s just like my name!” she exclaims as she pulls the fiery redhead to her side and raises a fist to the air. “I am Aisley Darshanadottir, guardian of Prince Thor and Prince Loki! It is very nice to meet you, young mortal!”

Paisley struggles to breath in the tight Asgardian embrace, keeping the Jell-O safe by holding it away from the loud woman “ _very_ nice to meet you too” she says, her voice slightly muffled as her face is squished into Aisley’s breasts.

Bruce and Tony chuckle from across the room.

“It’s nice that you’re making friends and all, but we need to get back to work” Tony smirks, gesturing towards the screens with a miniature electric rod.

“Oh, my apologies,” Aisley said, lowering her voice and releasing the young woman. “I must go find Thor anyways. I will leave you all to your work.” With that, Aisley stepped out of the lab and marched off to find the other Asgardian.

Tony blinks. “Handsy,” he looks over at Paisley, smirking. “Snd you liked it. So, what are you into? Women, men, aliens?”

Paisley smirks. “Jell-O,” she says confidently as she picks up the spoon and takes a bite.

Bruce raises a brow before turning back to his screen, deciding against opening that can of worms despite his own curiosities. “The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process” he says, bringing everyone back to the situation at hand.

“If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops,” Tony suggests as he looks over his tech.

“All I packed was a tooth brush” Bruce says, impressed.

Paisley smirks and shakes her head. “That’s nothing. I brought a compactable footlocker, my holographic work desk, and B.A.S.I.S.”

Bruce rolls his eyes and smiles fondly at Paisley as the two geniuses try to outdo each other.

“You know, you should come by Stark Towers sometime, both of you. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd guys love it, it's candy land,” Tony says twirling the electrical prod between his fingers.

Paisley snorts and rolls her eyes from her spot next to Bruce, “that’s not gonna happen anytime soon. You just found out I’m your kid. Besides, New York is a little too busy for my taste.”

Bruce nods in agreement with Paisley, “Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem,” he supplies sheepishly.

Tony walks up to Bruce’s left, glancing at Paisley on his other side working on her watch again.

“Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises.” Suddenly, Tony pokes Bruce with the miniature electrical prod, staring intensely into Bruce’s eyes, looking for a change of some kind.

Steve walks in on them, obviously spotting what Tony did, a pissed off look contorting his normally controlled face.

“OW!” Bruce says, turning to look down at his side in slight annoyance before looking at Tony, confused.

Tony looks at Banner closely. “Nothing?” he asks.

Paisley looks at her father in shock. The idiot just zapped Bruce to try and get a glimpse at the Hulk. What breed of idiot was he? Did he honestly think that would work?

“Hey! Are you nuts?” Steve exclaims.

Tony spares the good Captain a glance, “Juries still out” he remarks before turning back to Bruce with a questioning gaze. “You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?” Tony asks, only half serious.

Paisley rolls her eyes, getting back to her teleporter and leaving the men to argue amongst themselves now that the danger is gone and Bruce has shown herself to have control over his green counterpart.

“Is everything a joke to you?” Steve asks, done with Tony’s shit.

“Funny things are,” Tony says flippantly, just to annoy Steve further.

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny,” Steve states, before adding, “No offense, Doctor.”

Paisley, taking offense for Bruce, sets down her tools as she stands and glares heatedly at Steve. “This little muffin might not care but I sure as hell do! Who do you think you are? Coming in here calling a good man a threat! He’s in control! You all need to chill the fuck out before I go green for him!” Paisley yells, blue eyes ablaze with fury.

“Here I thought the good doctor would be the one to blow a gasket” Tony chuckles.

Bruce looks touched as he places a hand on Paisley’s arm, calming her down instantly as she looks up at him curiously, her eyes still annoyed. “It's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things” he assures, giving Paisley a light squeeze before removing his hand from her shoulder.

Paisley smiles back and nods, giving Steve and Tony one last warning look before sitting back in her seat and tinkering with her teleporter once more.

Tony, ignoring her glare, rolls his eyes. “You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut,” he comments.

“And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark” Steve orders.

Tony comes around to stand directly in front of the Captain. “You think I'm not?” he questions with a glare. “Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables.”

“You think Fury's hiding something?” Steve scoffs.

“He's a spy. Captain, he's _the_ spy. His secrets have secrets,” Tony states before pointing towards Bruce and Paisley, “It's bugging them too, isn't it?”

“Absolutely not. I’m not part of this,” Paisley says as she shakes her head and continues her work.

“Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and...” Bruce says, also trying to stay out of the argument.

Steve however isn’t having it. “Doctors?” he asks, his eyes harsh.

There’s a pause. Paisley stares Steve down, completely unfazed by his scary captain stare. Bruce on the other hand struggles to remain out of it but bending from Cap’s harsh stare being directed at him.

“'A warm light for all mankind,’ Loki's jab at Fury about the cube,” Bruce says hesitantly, glancing at Paisley before turning to Tony and Steve.

“I heard it,” Steve nods.

Bruce points towards Tony. “Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news.”

“The Stark Tower? That big ugly-” Steve pauses when he sees Tony giving him a look. “…building in New York?”

Bruce nods. “It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?

Tony gives a nod. “That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now,” he boasts.

Bruce nods and Paisley looks up in realization as she says, “So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project?”

Bruce smiles over at her and nods. “Exactly. I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”

Tony smirks. “I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files.”

Paisley grins, remembering when he placed that bug on Fury’s computers.

Steve looks shocked by that. “I'm sorry, did you say...?”

Tony smirks, playing with his screens. “Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide,” holding out his bag of blueberries, Tony offers them to Steve. “Blueberry?”

Ignoring the offering of food, Steve glares at Tony. “Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?”

“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible,” Tony says in a snarky voice.

“I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them,” Steve says.

Paisley rolls her eyes. “Blindly follow someone who’s real intensions are still unclear? I’m not comfortable with that,” she says, shaking her head as she pushes away from her desk to stand next to Bruce.

Tony nods towards Paisley before turning back to Steve. “Following is not really my style.”

Steve smiles in a patronizing way. “And you're all about style, aren't you?”

Tony narrows his eyes. “Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?”

Paisley whistles slowly. “Shots fired,” she tisks, arms crossed as she leans her hip against Bruce’s table.

Bruce glances at Paisley and gives an amused smile before turning back to Steve, “Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?”

Steve takes in the possibility, but as an obedient soldier, shakes it off. “Just find the cube,” Steve growls before turning and walking out of the lab.

“Well he’s dramatic,” Paisley sighs, making Bruce rolls his eyes with amusement.

“That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice,” Tony growls.

“The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us,” Bruce comments.

“What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit,” Tony scoffs. “It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does.”

Bruce blinks. “And I'll read all about it.”

Paisley chuckles. “That’ll be me, you on the other hand…” she trails off.

Bruce looks at her confused, but Tony is the one to finish her thought. “Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us,” he smirks.

“Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare,” Bruce says with a bitter smile.

Paisley frowns. She’s seen footage of Hulk, it’s not all that scary but it does look painful to turn into him and to become Bruce again.

Tony stares a Bruce for a moment before saying, “You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart.” Tony gestures to the arc reactor in his chest. “This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege.”

Bruce shakes his head. “But you can control it,” he tries to reason.

“Because I learned how,” Tony stresses, trying to level with Bruce. Get him to see he’s not as alone as he thinks.

Bruce shakes his head. “It's different,” he murmurs as he tries it read his computer screen, but Tony slides the data aside with his finger so the two can see face-to-face. Paisley sighs from her spot next to Bruce, she really didn’t want to start an argument with Tony however if he kept pushing at Bruce, he would find himself facing her wrath, much like the Captain did.

“Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you,” Tony says suddenly all serious.

Bruce looks at Tony dryly. “So, you're saying that the Hulk... the other guy... saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?” he asks.

Paisley frowns. The way Bruce talked didn’t sit well with her. It’s almost as if he doesn’t care about his own life.

There’s a pause before Tony breaks it with, “I guess we'll find out.”

Bruce and Stark get back to work at their respective computers while Paisley continues to stare at Bruce.

“You might not like that,” he says in response.

Tony shrugs. “You just might.”

Paisley looks between the two and smiles, leaning towards Bruce as she whispers, “I have faith in you. Hulk too. You just need to find a balance in each other. This body is just as much his as it is yours,” she shrugs, turning to get back to her own work.

Bruce looks over at her, stunned yet again by how she sees the big guy differently than anyone else he’s ever met.

Hours pass in the lab, the three scientists doing their own things as they search for the tesseract, it’s nighttime.

“Well, I don’t know about you kids but I’m turning in for the night. J.A.R.V.I.S. will keep looking while we sleep,” Tony declares as he turns from his monitor, obvious exhaustion weighing down his normally bright brown eyes.

Bruce looks down at his watch, seeing that it’s well into the night, basically morning. Looking back up his eyes land on Paisley whom is still working diligently on her teleporter. Her hair is in a messy bun on top of her head, strands falling into her face, but she doesn’t seem to notice as she lightly bites her lip and carefully makes small corrections to her device. Bruce has to stop himself from moving a strand of fiery hair from her porcelain cheek.

Tony looks from Paisley to Bruce and smirks as he nudges Bruce, whispering, “why don’t you tell her it’s quitting time. I’m off. See you in the morning, _lover boy_.”

Bruce blushes, looking away from Tony as the man exits the lab, heading for his temporary room. Looking back towards Paisley, Bruce continues to stare at her, now noticing the dark bruises under her gunmetal blue eyes. Her thick framed reading glasses are perched atop her nose as she leans in close to her work space, engrossed in her project. Sighing, Bruce moves around the work space to stand right next to Paisley.

Placing a hand lightly on her forearm, Bruce stills her hand and waits till she comes back to reality and looks up at him with questioning eyes. “It’s late, Tony’s already off to bed, we should head that way too” he says delicately, unsure of her temperament.

Paisley blinks and looks around, just now noticing the absence of the eccentric man that was evidently her father. “I see…you head off, Bruce. I’m not ready to sleep” she says with a light smile as she looks back up at Bruce.

Bruce’s brow furrows as he looks down at Paisley. She looks exhausted, like a light pat would send her to the floor. “When was the last time you slept?” he asks softly, his hand still placed on her forearm in case she tries to start working again. He remembers that when he first arrived that morning, she had already been in the lab working, did she even leave it since she first got here?

Paisley, seeing his hand, blushes but doesn’t make any attempts to move it, instead she shrugs and looks down at the table. “Who knows. What’s today?” she jokes, pausing when she sees the serious concern on Bruce’s face. Sighing, Paisley relents. “A couple days, no more than three.”

When Bruce looks at her with wide eyes, Paisley gives a small smirk. “Relax, Doc. I’m an insomniac, my body is quiet used to this treatment,” she says, patting his hand as she turns back to her work.

Bruce isn’t having it.

Carefully, Bruce takes Paisley’s tools from her hands and sets them down. “Your work will be here when you come back. Sleep. At least try, we need everyone at their best if we’re going to find the scepter,” he tries to reason.

Paisley rolls her eyes but stands nonetheless. “Fine. I’ll sleep, but only because I can’t say no to that cute face,” she winks.

Bruce blushes, following Paisley out the lab as they head for their sleeping quarters, amused to find them not only down the same hall, but right next to each other.

“Well, I guess this is good night. Night, Bruce,” Paisley says with a genuine smile.

Bruce smiles back bashfully. “Good night, Paisley. See you in the morning.”

Separating to their rooms, Paisley changes into a baggy black t-shirt and black jogging pants before brushing her teeth and heading to bed. Her mind spins as usual, a machine that refuses to stop as it thinks of equations and projects. Paisley frowns, turning onto her side, wondering if she’ll get any sleep. That’s when her thoughts turn to that of the shy doctor. Paisley smiles lightly, thinking of the interactions they’ve had and how much she was starting to enjoy Bruce’s company, soon, she finds herself drifting off into a peaceful sleep.


	18. Avengers - Aisley

This bed was uncomfortable. Perhaps Aisley had become too used to Asgardian luxury. Or perhaps she simply didn’t want to be here. Luckily her room in this ship was only temporary.

This day had been chaotic. Finding out Loki’s alive, having to come back to earth, potentially having to battle against her best friend. She wished she was still on Asgard. She wished things could just go back to the way they were. The simpler times when she, Loki, and Thor would play together. Those memories felt like childish fantasies now.

Aisley turned on her side, unable to find comfort in her rock-hard bed. It certainly didn’t help that she was forced to share a room with Thor, whose snoring grew louder and louder throughout the night. Eventually she simply put her pillow over her head and attempted to rest. Unfortunately, however, she only managed to sleep for a few hours until daylight arrived.

The next morning, she found herself sitting in the ship’s dining hall with the blond prince, her hands curled around a warm mug of coffee. Her shoulder-length hair was pulled back into a braid, and she had left her plum-purple cape back in her room. Now the only thing she wore was her silver armor, chainmail skirt, and the jade green leather that went beneath it all.

“Midgardian coffee is weak,” she mumbled.

Thor chuckled. “Would you rather have a cup of juiced oranges?”

“Absolutely not,” Aisley said, scrunching her nose in disgust. “You know I cannot stand the taste of citrus.”

Another chuckle. “Have you eaten?”

“No.”

“I recommend you do.”

“No need to big-brother me, Thor,” said Aisley. “I can take care of myself.”

Thor gave her a gentle smile. “Believe me, I have learned,” he said. “But sometimes I cannot help looking out for my top guard.”

Aisley rolled her eyes and gave a faint smile. Thor knew that calling her his ‘top guard’ could always turn her mood around.

“Shall we go see how our Midgardian friends are doing?” he asked.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Aisley responded.


	19. Avengers - Paisley

The next day finds Paisley in the lab again. She’s dressed in baggy faded jeans, a spike belt lazily wrapped around her waist and a plain black tank top, signature black combat boots adorning her feet. Paisley’s so engrossed in her work that she doesn’t notice the arrival of Tony and Bruce.

“Geez. It’s barely seven in the morning. Did you leave her in here?” Tony asks as she looks over at Bruce incredulously.

Bruce shrugs just as confused by the early riser. “I walked her to her room shortly after you left. She must be an early bird.”

Tony shutters. “Early people. How is she my daughter again?” he asks rhetorically before loudly proclaiming, “good morning, Offspring!” as he swaggers up to her table, his arms raised high and a cocky smirk on his face.

Paisley glances up from her work and mutters “morning” before being engrossed again. Not even a flinch.

Tony looks over at Bruce questionably, but Bruce only raises his hands as if to say ‘don’t look at me’ before heading to his spot in the lab.

Paisley bites her lip, she’s almost done, just one more…. “Ah-Ha!” she declares, shooting up out of her seat as she looks over at the confused men with big shining blue eyes.

Tony is again taken aback by how similar they are to his mother’s eyes as she rounds her desk to stand right in front of Tony, thrusting her watch into his hands before she starts to circle around him.

“It’s done! Finished! I’m great! I’m a genius! This is my life’s work!” she declares as she spins around him, her curly red hair bouncing all over the place as she dances in celebration of finally completing her teleporter.

Tony looks down at the ordinary looking watch in his hands, curious about this so-called teleporter that he’d watched her work on for the past day, before looking back at Paisley whom is now dancing around Bruce with a giant grin on her face. The doctor smiles back, blushing just the littlest bit at her attention. “Alright, Kiddo. Show me how it works before you give the good doctor a heart attack,” he smirks.

Paisley rolls her eyes and walks up to Tony, grabbing her watch. “Spoilers. I’ll show you later. Let’s check on the scepter and that hacking device of yours,” she smirks.

Tony smirks back, heading to his spot in the lab as he looks over his screens to see how far J.A.R.V.I.S. has gotten with hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D. while they’d all been sleeping.

Bruce looks at Paisley curiously. “So how long have you been working on that?” he asks, looking at her watch that’s now on her wrist.

Paisley smirks. “It’s been done for years. I’ve just been trying to make it less bulky since. That, and make it able to read genetic signatures so I can teleport to certain people,” she shrugs.

Bruce looks at her stunned and goes to ask her more questions when Fury walks in the lab, looking pissed.

“What are you doing, Mr. Stark?” he asks, authority radiating off of him as he stares down the playboy.

“Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you,” Tony provides.

“You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract,” Fury says, hands on his hips.

That’s when Bruce steps in. “We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile.”

Paisley smirks, seeing that J.A.R.V.I.S. is done breaking into S.H.I.E.L.D. “We’re doing our jobs as fast as we can, Nickie. You can send a team in to get it once the coordinates are up.”

“And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss,” Tony adds, pausing as his monitor show a collection of secret files. “What is PHASE 2?” he asks.

Suddenly, Steve drops a high-tech rifle on the table that looks suspiciously like a Hydra assault rifle. This causes Fury, Banner, Paisley and Tony to turn around. Cap looks pissed.

Paisley gives a low whistle. “Good work, Cap.”

Steve glances her way with a nod before glaring back at Fury as he says, “PHASE 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons,” he then looks over at Tony. “Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me.”

Fury walks towards Steve as he tries to explain. “Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're...” he’s cut off as Paisley coughs, standing next to Tony and his screens.

Steve and Fury turn to her, glaring at the interruption till she jerks her thumb towards Tony and his monitor.

“I'm sorry, Nick,” he begins, turning his monitor so Steve and Fury can read it. “What were you lying?” he asks, the monitor clearly showing plans for the hydra tech being turning into worse weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D. to use.

“I was wrong, Director,” Steve says, glaring at Fury just as Natasha, Thor, and Aisley walk into the lab. “The world hasn’t changed a bit.”

Paisley makes eye contact with Aisley, seeing the woman doesn’t want to get into this argument just as much as herself.

Paisley steps closer to Bruce, remaining silent as her chest starts to feel tight. Paisley has never been good with a large about of people, angry people make the situation much worse. She can’t help but feel that something isn’t right, the fighting. Everyone is much more hostile than they should be.

The tension rises and as does Paisley’s heartbeat. She quickly takes ahold of Bruce’s hand and closes her eyes tightly. She needs to calm down before she has a panic attack.

“Us?!” comes Aisley’s indignant reply to something, bringing Paisley’s attention back to the argument at hand.

“Last year earth had some visitors from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town,” Fury explains with a weighted sigh. “We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly…hilariously…outgunned.”

Paisley watches as Aisley tries to rein in her anger, there’s already so much in the room, making the air hard to breathe. Paisley looks around nervously, what would happen if the room reached its peak? Who would snap first? What would happen to their so-called team?

Was this even a team?

Paisley looks around again, everyone was shouting at each other, even Bruce. She steps back from him as if she’s been scorched, her fists balling at her sides as her breathing comes out harder.

“ENOUGH!” Paisley finally yells, gaining the attention of everyone in the room as her icy eyes lock with everyone in turn. “We’re supposed to be a team!” she pleads, shaking with anxiety and rage.

“A team?” Bruce exclaims, rounding on Paisley. Paisley flinches ever so slightly at seeing the anger in his chocolate brown eyes directed at her.

Bruce, seeing this, quickly loses the anger and instead looks at her sadly.

Paisley looks at him, pleadingly, silently begging him to make the fighting stop.

Bruce sees the anxiety in her eyes, sees that she’s close to bursting again if something isn’t done but he only shakes his head. “No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time-bomb,” he says directing his words to everyone but keeping his eyes on Paisley, taking her trembling hand into his once more.

“You need to step away,” Fury tells Bruce, making Paisley glare hot daggers at him.

“Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?” Tony comments, putting an arm around the Captain.

Paisley zones off again, starting to get a migraine with all this fighting.

She looks around, noticing that everyone is at each other’s throats again, all except Aisley who looks at Paisley and shakes her head at the ridiculousness of this situation. Paisley sighs, shaking her head as well. She sees Aisley smirk a bit and would question what she found amusing if it weren’t for Bruce suddenly declaring “In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!”

Paisley’s heart stops, her whole body freezing over as Bruce’s words rattle around in her head. Why would he…

Bruce glances back at Paisley, shame written all over his face while tears gather in Paisley’s eyes, her heart suddenly hurts. She’s only known him for a day, but she’s attached already, they’ve had fun together, laughed. He helped her tell Tony she’s his daughter.

“I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out! So, I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!” Bruce turned to Natasha. “You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?”

Paisley looks to the ground, her mind still trying to process what he’d just said. She didn’t know he hated Hulk so much. It wasn’t fair to the big guy or to Bruce. Her heart went out to him. She’s thought out ending her life too, everyone has at some point or another, but this was different. He truly saw no other way…

Paisley is brought back to the present when she hears Steve say, “Doctor Banner... put down the scepter,” in a calming voice.

Paisley looks to her left, seeing Bruce standing there, looking down at the scepter in his grasp. Paisley notices he’s confused, like he subconsciously grabbed the scepter while he was talking. This just makes Paisley worry for his health even more.

Suddenly the computer behind them beeps. “Got it,” Tony says.

Bruce puts down the scepter, turning to the computer. Paisley wipes away her unshed tears before standing next to Bruce, looking over the screen as well.

“Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all,” Bruce says, glancing at Paisley as she frowns at him. Bruce gives her an apologetic smile which she shrugs to as she shuffles closer to him, looking the screen over.

“Located the Tesseract?” Thor asks.

Tony immediately steps up, “I can get there faster,” he egotistically exclaims.

“Look, all of us...” Steve tries to say but is cut off as Thor speaks up again.

“The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it.”

Tony turns to leave, but Steve stops him as they begin to argue once more.

Paisley rolls her eyes, tired of the arguing as she drops her head on Bruce’s shoulder.

Suddenly Bruce stiffens, causing Paisley’s head to shoot up as she looks into his wide eyes.

 “Doctor Banner?” Aisley asks calmly. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, my God” he mutters, taking his glasses off.

Paisley turns to look at the screen, but Bruce pulls her to his chest instead, just as a massive explosion goes off, sending everyone in different directions.

As the dust clears, Paisley hisses in pain and looks around.

She’s on a lower level now, it looks like a storage room.

“B-bruce?” she calls, turning slightly when she doesn’t feel him holding her anymore.

“Paisley. I need you to come to me, slowly,” a calm female voice calls instead.

Paisley looks to her right and spots Natasha, she looks a little banged up and her eyes are wide with fear. Suddenly Paisley feels scared too, what could rattle Natasha Romanoff?

Slowly, Paisley rises to her knees, noting that though a little bruised in some places, she’s perfectly fine. That must mean that Bruce took most of the fall…

Bruce.

Whipping her head to the side, Paisley spots him. He’s gripping the grated floor to maintain control, but his eyes are green, his face intense.

Paisley suddenly understands why Natasha is scared, but that just calms Paisley down. She’s not afraid, it’s still Bruce.

“Bruce are you alright?” Paisley asks, moving towards him in worry.

“Paisley don’t!” Natasha yells suddenly.

This makes both Bruce and Paisley turn to her.

“Come back over here. It isn’t safe!” Natasha chastises, trying to move out from under the rubble she’s trapped under.

This just makes both the scientists angry.

Bruce struggles to suppress the rage, but his face is growing, changing slowly.

“Quiet! I know what I’m doing, Bruce would never hurt me. Watch out for yourself, Romanoff,” Paisley hisses before turning and looking into Bruce’s glowing green eyes.

Her face softens considerably. “Hey, Bruce. Let’s get you up, you’ve got to breathe with me. As much as I’d love to meet Hulk I don’t think now is a good time, he’s scared right now and wants to protect you, but I want to help you up first to check on you, see if you have any injuries that need tending to,” Paisley says softly, placing a gentle hand on Bruce’s shoulder.

His muscles spasm under her touch, slowly calming as he looks up at her, breathing heavily as the Hulk staring at her soft face through Bruce’s eyes. Paisley notices immediately that Hulk is mostly in control at this moment. “Hey there, can you hear me, Hulk?” Bruce twitches slightly at the name, enough for Paisley to know that it’s him. “My name’s Paisley. I want you to know that I’m here for Bruce and you, can I check him over for injuries?” she asks softly, knowing that they’re both present in Bruce’s consciousness right now when his eyes flicker to Bruce’s soft brown.

Bruce calms just the slightest bit more, but that’s when Natasha opens her big mouth, trying to be helpful.

“Doctor...”

Bruce groans, his head falling between his arms as he tries to keep himself up on all fours, but Natasha’s voice is irritating Hulk, making him want to come out, to protect Bruce from the unknown threat.

“Bruce, you gotta fight it,” Natasha tries, ignoring Paisley as she glares at her to shut up.

Paisley rubs circles on Bruce’s back, noticing that he’s just getting more and more worked up as Natasha keeps talking.

“This is just what Loki wants. We're gonna be okay. Listen to me,” Natasha pauses when she sees two approaching S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers arrive to check on her. She furiously waves them away and they bolt out of there, leaving Natasha and Paisley to calm Bruce down.

“Hey, Bruce, Hulk. I need both of you to breathe deeply, calmly. We can do this, we need to think with clear heads, so we can come up with a way to get out of this mess alive,” Paisley says softly, still rubbing circles on Bruce’s back.

Natasha interrupts again, her fear getting the better of her. “We're gonna be okay. Right? I swear on my life we will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never...”

Natasha is cut off as Bruce whips his head to the side, roaring, “Your life?” His voice has changed -- the bitter amusement is morphing to a growled threat.

Bruce suddenly rises to his knees, throwing his head back as he growls, his skin turning green and his shirt ripping to make room for the Hulk’s bulky muscles.

He thrashes, falling to his side as he moves farther into the dark and away from the women.

Paisley gives Natasha a warning look as she quietly moves to kneel in front of Bruce. He’s hunched over again, his purple shirt ripped in various places and muscles begging to be released.

Paisley doesn’t try to sooth him anymore, accepting that Hulk is coming out. She gently lays her hand on Bruce’s cheek and whispers, “it’s alright, Hulk. I’m here ignore the puny spider woman. Just be careful,” the words seem to calm Hulk a little as his eyes lock with Paisley’s looking soft rather than angry.

Paisley gives him a small smile, not scared at all as he continues to grow into his Hulk size.

Hulk rises to his feet, only wearing ripped pants now as she staggers away from Paisley, letting off a mighty roar as he hits a support beam.

Paisley stands too, noticing that Natasha has freed herself from the floor and his now looking at Hulk in shock and horror.

Hulk looks over his shoulder at Paisley, a soft look on his face.

Paisley smiles back and goes to take a step forwards when Natasha let’s out a sound of protest. Paisley turns to glare at Natasha, but that just makes Hulk see Natasha as a threat.

Letting out an ear-piercing roar, Hulk suddenly runs at Natasha.

“Wait!” Paisley tries to call but it’s too late as Natasha runs up the stairs, Hulk running after her.

Natasha maneuvers like the black widow she is, rolling under a turbine as she starts to crawl within the maze of pipes.

The Hulk pulls them out from above the catwalk. Natasha falls through under the catwalks and quickly and stealthily escapes.

The Hulk lets out a roar of rage that almost sends Paisley to the ground with how loud it is. Suddenly she’s very worried for Natasha.

Paisley takes off after them, Hulk responded to her. He understood her and didn’t want to hurt her. Hulk might be called a monster, but he was just the primal version of Bruce. His own person that shares the same body and human emotions. Right now, he wants to live.


	20. Avengers - Aisley

It only took a few moments to discover the whereabouts of the others. The ginger agent named Natasha explained that everybody was in the laboratory upstairs, then proceeded to lead the Asgardian duo to the proper location. Thanks to her interactions from yesterday, however, Aisley knew very well where the laboratory was. Still, she guessed it was best to let the woman lead the way.

Approaching the lab, Aisley immediately sensed discomfort and anger emanating from the room. Judging from everyone’s faces, the group was in the middle of an argument.

“I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit,” Captain said in a stern voice as the trio entered the room.

Scanning the area, the entire team seemed to be in this lab. For a moment, Aisley locked eyes with Paisley, but both silently agreed not to speak quite yet.

“Did you know about this?” Banner asked, directing the question towards Natasha.

“You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?”

“I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed.”

“Loki's manipulating you.”

“And you've been doing what exactly?”

As the tension began to swallow the room, Aisley partially stepped in front of Thor. If anything went wrong, it was her job to make sure he was alright. Glancing towards her new friend, she noticed the young woman’s posture had stiffened and her grasp on Banner’s hand has tightened.

“You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you,” Natasha remarked.

“Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy,” said Bruce with a stern tone. “I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

A moment of silence passed before Fury gestured a hand towards the Asgardian duo. “Because of them.”

“Us?!” Aisley blurted out, taken aback by the director’s comment.

“Last year earth had some visitors from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town,” Fury explained. It was clear his patience was wearing thin. “We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly… _hilariously_ …outgunned.”

This comment nearly set Aisley off, but she forced herself to keep a calm composure. Asgard only ever wanted peace with this planet and the rest of nine realms. Surely someone like Fury would understand that.

Looking around, Aisley saw one angry face after another. Finally, she stopped on Paisley’s nervous expression. The fiery-haired mortal looked as though she was about to burst. Aisley didn’t blame her. All this tension. All this arguing. It was too much.

“Enough!” The young scientist shouted. “We’re supposed to be a team.”

“A team?” exclaimed Banner, rounding on Paisley. Though, his demeanor quickly changed upon seeing the redhead’s large blue eyes. Clearly there was something unspoken going on between the two. “No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a _time-bomb.”_

“You need to step away,” said Fury to Banner.

“Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?” Stark commented, putting an arm around the Captain.

Imbeciles. They’re all imbeciles. The heated argument had simply turned into petty squabbling between ignorant men. A battle of testosterone with Stark and the Captain attempting to challenge each other. Paisley was right. This is not how a team is supposed to work. She began to wonder if any of these Midgardians even knew what a team was.

Aisley simply sat aside, rolling her eyes at the idiotic humans. At one point she locked eyes with Paisley again and the both of them simply shook their heads at the situation. Aisley couldn’t help but smirk a bit. She knew they had both began to ignore this pointless argument. That is…until Bruce said something to grab their attention once again.

“In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!”

The young goddess’ jaw dropped and her aqua eyes grew wide. She immediately turned to look at her friend. Nothing but utter horror and heartbreak was spread across Paisley’s face. If she didn’t know any better, Aisley could have sworn her friend was on the verge of tears. Bruce looked towards the young scientist, almost shamefully, before continuing.

“I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out! So, I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!” Bruce turned to Natasha. “You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?”

As the doctor spoke, Aisley’s eyes immediately locked upon his hands. Paisley was too distracted by his story, but Aisley noticed something else. And it appeared she wasn’t the only one.

“Doctor Banner... put down the scepter,” said Steve calmly.

Banner paused for a moment, then looked down at his grasp. It was clear he had subconsciously grabbed the scepter during his little speech. Suddenly the computer behind him beeped. He put down the scepter and stated that he’s found the location of the Tesseract, only for more petty squabbling to arise within the team.

Aisley can’t help but notice sudden panic on the doctor’s face. “Doctor Banner?” she asked calmly, making sure to stay close to Thor. “What’s wrong?”

The only thing Bruce can manage to get out of his mouth is a simple ‘oh my god!’ and before Aisley can say anything else, she’s suddenly thrown across the room as smoke and clouds of dusts appear before them. Her ears began to ring. Something was wrong. Did the laboratory just explode?! Soon the smoke clears up just enough for her to see Thor dart out of the room.

Once she found enough strength to pull herself back up, Aisley began to head towards the door but quickly felt a hand upon her shoulder. She turned around only to see Captain America himself.

“You’re a solider, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Somewhat,” she answered, unsure of where he was going with this question.

“Well then here’s your first order: Go help the injured agents on the main floor.”

She wanted to say no. She wanted to insist on helping Thor. But instead, she simply surrendered and headed downstairs.

Chaos had been unleashed on the main floor. Everyone was panicking and worrying about the engine that had gone down during the explosion. Fury was checking in on everyone through the communicators while Maria Hill shouted orders. It didn’t take very long for Aisley to help aide those who needed it before she was given another order.

“Aisley! Go make sure Loki doesn’t escape his cell!” Fury demanded. Aisley responded with a nod, wondering why she wasn’t sent to do that in the first place.

The elevator suddenly seemed slower than before. Then again, she wasn’t in such a rush last time she was inside of it. When the double doors finally chimed open, she darted towards the brink.

Upon finding the room, she noticed Loki standing just inside the door of his cell. But something was different. This was an illusion.

“No!” Thor shouted as he leaped towards the being he presumed was his brother. Once it vanished, Aisley couldn’t help but release a frustrated yell.

“Idiot!” she shouted. “Are you going to fall for his tricks every single time?! Honestly. We grew up with him our whole lives and _you_ never learned when he was lying! How long are you going to—”

She paused. Suddenly she found herself inside of the cell along with Thor. Dammit. She had been subconsciously walking towards the prince while she was yelling at him. Again.

A familiar laugh appeared behind her. She whipped her head around, aqua orbs locking on the lean figure.

“Thor never learned not to fall for my tricks,” Loki said with a grin. “But you, Aisley, never learned not to fall for your own temper.”

In a fit of anger Thor slammed Mjolnir against the glass of the cell, causing a small spider-web crack to spread. Loki simply smiled.

“The humans think us immortal,” the trickster said as he walked towards the control panel. “Should we test that?”

Before Aisley and Thor had time to react, one of Loki’s brainwashed guards fell to the floor. Behind him was Agent Coulson, holding a rather high-tech weapon.

“Move away, please,” ordered Coulson, in which Loki hesitantly moved away from the panel. “You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent The Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?”

“Oh no,” Aisley whispered to herself. Thor turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “It’s an illusion. I was too late to notice.”

Thor whipped his head around at the sound of a loud gasp. Coulson was stabbed right through the chest, the real Loki standing directly behind him.

“NOOO!” Thor yelled and banged his hands against the glass.

Tears began streaming down Aisley’s face as the reality of the situation sunk in. This whole time she thought maybe Loki was simply misunderstood by the others. He simply wanted to be an equal, just like everyone else. He wouldn’t do anything _that_ bad. But he did. And he did it right in front of her with no hesitation. At that moment, some piece of her heart had broken. The part that was already frail as a twig. It had been snapped in half.

“Damn you, Loki!!!” Aisley exclaimed as she slammed her fists against the wall of the cell, causing the whole thing to vibrate for a moment. “I thought I could trust you!”

A look of pain crossed Loki’s face for a moment, but he quickly hid it as he walked towards the control panel. “And I thought the same thing about you,” he said quietly as he pulled a switch.


	21. Avengers - Paisley

By the time Paisley catches up with Hulk and Natasha, she spots Hulk just about to hit Natasha as she shrinks against the wall.

“HULK STOP!” Paisley screams, coming to stop ten feet away from Hulk.

Hulk turns to her, enraged, pausing when he sees it’s Paisley. His arm lowers as he turns to her, a soft look on his face. Like a scared child.

That’s when it hits Paisley. The Hulk is young, much younger than his body lets on. “Hulk,” she says in a soft, soothing tone.

Hulk instantly takes a step towards her, but right at that moment, Thor flies through the wall and tackles Hulk into a different part of the Helicarrier.

Paisley ducks, almost getting hit with debris, before standing and rushing over to Natasha.

“Natasha are you alright?” she asks, falling to her knees in front of the traumatized spy that’s shakes like a leave, sweat drenching her face.

Natasha gives a shaky nod as she holds her knees to her chest, trying to fight off the panic and failing.

Paisley sighs, pulling Natasha close to her as she hugs the spy. “I need you to match my breathing. Trust me, you’re no good to anyone like this, I have a PhD in psychology, I can help,” Paisley rambles, trying to distract Natasha.

It works.

“Y-you ha-ve a PhD?” she asks, trying to calm her shaking.

Paisley chuckles. “Yeah. I did a lot of college before I got bored of it, took a lot of different classes. You’d be surprised what all I can do,” she smirks, getting a dry chuckle out of the spy.

The two women sit like that for who knows how long, Paisley trying to calm Natasha down so the spy can do her job as the world continues to explode around them.

That’s when Hulk’s roar reaches their ears once more. Natasha tenses up while Paisley looks around in worry.

“G-go to him,” Natasha suddenly says.

Paisley looks down at her confused. “What do you mean?”

“H-he needs to be s-stopped. Find him and calm him down. I saw you…you were right, he won’t hurt you,” Natasha says, pushing Paisley away.

“What about you?” Paisley asks as she slowly rises to her feet, already making up her mind to find Hulk.

Natasha shrugs. “I just need a breather. I’ll be fine, thanks to you. Now go.”

Paisley nods, sprinting through the hole that Hulk and Thor went through a while ago. She rushes past panicked agents fighting other agents or helping wounded ones, following the sound of Hulk fighting with Thor.

“B.A.S.I.S. I need a shortcut,” Paisley says, coming up to a dead in made by fallen bits of metal as she doubles back to find another way.

 **“Sure. Taking in the damage already done to this bird, the quickest way to Hulk’s current location is through here,”** Paisley’s A.I. says, pulling up a hologram on Paisley’s teleporter.

Paisley studies the map as she takes off running.

She skids to a halt when she rounds the corner, seeing dead or wounded agents scattered around. Some moaning in pain, others trying to radio for help.

Paisley’s breath is shallow as she stares into the cold hollow eyes of an agent who’d been shot in the head, his eyes have already fogged over, lifeless.

Paisley takes a step back but then she hears Hulk letting out another ground quaking roar. She needs to be strong, she has a mission, someone to protect. This is real, she’s not here to meet new people, she’s here to save lives. Right now, she needs to save Hulk from the scared idiots attacking him.

Stealing herself, Paisley runs down the hall, jumping over dead and wounded agents as she makes her way closer and closer to the roaring.

Suddenly someone grabs her from behind, an agent with glowing blue eyes. “You’re not on my side,” Paisley gasps, ducking when the hypnotized agent tries to attack her. “Suck on this!” Paisley yells, throwing a small disk at the man, it latches to his face and without missing a beat, Paisley presses a button on her watch, making a high voltage shock course through the man’s body.

The man cries out in agony before falling to the ground unconscious.

“Damn I wish I had more than one of those. I need to work on that,” Paisley huffs as she takes off running again, following the map once more and ducking to hide or play dead whenever she hears someone coming her way.

Eventually she finally finds herself in a large room, the airplane hangar, spotting Hulk holding Thor by the throat.

“HULK! PUT HIM DOWN!” Paisley yells, jumping from her position above him.

Hulk looks up, eyes wide when he sees Paisley falling towards him, he instantly drops the god of thunder in favor of catching Paisley.

Paisley gasps for air, looking up at Hulk with wide eyes and an even wider smile. “That was exhilarating! We should do it again,” she giggles. Hulk just kind of stares at her, confused but happy to see her. That is, until bullets start firing right next to Paisley’s head.

Hulk instantly holds Paisley to his chest to protect her from the on slant of bullets coming from a small plane at the mouth of the hangar. The bullets hit Hulk’s arms instead, not penetrating the thick skin and in turn keeping Paisley safe.

Thor ducks to the side so as not to get hit.

The Hulk looks down at Paisley, for the first time seeing fear in her bright blue eyes. Growling, he turns around, letting out his primal roar. He jumps up, taking a running start and leaping right onto the jet’s nose.

The jet spins widely as the Hulk starts tearing it apart with one hand, the other holding Paisley tightly to his chest. The pilot pulls his ejection seat, but Hulk catches him.

“Hulk! Let him go!” Paisley screams over the wind, clinging onto the Hulk tightly.

Hulk waves around the pilot before throwing him away.

Paisley peeks over Hulk’s large muscles to see the pilot pull his parachute.

Paisley sighs in relief but then screams in shock as the jet suddenly explodes, Hulk falling off it as he holds Paisley with both arms, sending them plummeting towards Earth.

The last thing Paisley hears before she faints is Hulk letting out his loudest roar.


	22. Avengers - Aisley

“Thor, do something!” Aisley exclaimed. The two of them had been jumbled about the cage long enough for her to feel dizzy. Her thoughts were as discombobulated as her body was. So much was going on all at once. So much change. So much…

“Hold on!” Thor exclaimed as he pulled her to his side. He then settled himself onto one side of the glass and lunged towards the other. Mjolnir had managed the break the supposedly unbreakable glass.

Thor wrapped his arms around the young warrior, making sure she landed on top of him when they crashed as to cause her no harm. Once they were finally on the ground, Aisley groaned and rolled off the thunder god’s torso. Her ears were ringing, and her head felt as though a giant crack was splitting her skull right down the middle. Surely there were bruises all over her body.

She refused to open her eyes. She couldn’t. All she wanted was a few minutes to organize all the thoughts flowing through her mind.

“Come Aisley, we must get up,” said Thor’s voice.

“No,” was the only thing that could escape Aisley’s lips. She realized tears were still streaming down her face.

“We must search for the others. Let’s go.”

“No…please,” she whined.

“Very well. I suppose I’ll just carry you.”

Aisley moaned. He knew she hated being carried. “Fine,” she said, forcing herself to stand. Head spinning, it took a moment for her to find her balance.

“Ready?” Thor asked.

Aisley shook her head, paused a moment, then nodded. “This is not something I want to do,” she said. “But if I must fight my best friend for the sake of this planet…so be it.”

Thor nodded, picking up Mjolnir. He proceeded to raise it towards the sky. After a bolt of lightning struck the hammer the prince was once again covered in armor, his honey blonde hair flowing in the wind as he smiled back at his guard.

“Must you always be so dramatic?” Aisley teased, her plum purple cloak materializing onto her shoulders while her blonde hair was pulled back into a braid. Being an illusionist had its perks, simplicity being one of them.

Thor simply chuckled. “Come, we must find Loki.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They had been walking for hours. Her feet ached inside her silver boots, sweat dripping from her face thanks to the sun beaming down on them. Aisley had been mumbling complaints to herself about ‘I never signed up for this’ and ‘Thor can fly, why can’t he just fly us there.’ Her aqua blue eyes felt heavy as she looked up from her feet at the sound of Thor’s voice. Relief washed over her as the city came into view.

Scratch that.

The relief quickly turned into shock upon realizing that a giant wormhole was hovered over the city, allowing the Chitauri to enter this atmosphere. Buildings crumbled to pieces and the screams of citizens could be heard as they ran from the battle in terror.

“Loki, what have you done,” Aisley said in a near-whisper as mist began to fill her eyes. She shook her head. No. No more tears. She was a _warrior._ She never cried during any other battle, and this one will be no different.

Nothing would be the same after this. But perhaps that was not a bad thing.

Turning her head, blue eyes locked with her own. “So, which one of us is going to clean up Loki’s mess this time?” Aisley joked in attempt to bring a bit of relief to this whole situation.

Thor chuckled. “Allow me,” he joked back. “You tend to do it every other time.”

Aisley laughed. “I always clean up after you two.”

“Head to the city,” ordered Thor, a smile still lingering on his face. “I’ll take care of Loki.”

“Yes, my prince,” Aisley remarked as Thor spun his hammer and lifted himself from the ground. She watched the thunder god head towards the large tower in the city and shook her head.

She couldn’t help but complain to herself as she continued her long journey of walking. “’Head to the city,’ he insists, but does he ask if I need a lift? No. ‘Where’s Thor? I thought he was with you.’ Oh, yes, well he decided to leave me on the ground while he flew towards his brother. Princely bastard.”


	23. Avengers - Paisley

Paisley whimpers slightly, a headache threating to eat her alive as she tries to remember what happened. How she ended up knocked out. Physically, she feels fine. There’s a weight on her lower back, pushing her into something solid but it isn’t painful…her mind’s too foggy to focus on that quite yet. Another shock of pain makes her groan, her mind’s a mess, something isn’t right. Where is she? Was she still on the Helicarrier?

Paisley blinks her eyes, she can’t see. Everything is blurry.

Paisley freezes, a memory pressing forwards as a ringing starts in her ears. The Hulk’s roar! It’s enough to jog the rest of her memory.

Paisley gasps, blue orbs shooting open as the memories flood back to her.

The team was fighting!

An explosion!

She fell.

So did Banner and Natasha.

The Hulk came out to protect Bruce…

Enemies flooded the ship, she was almost shot…Hulk saved her.

Paisley’s heart clinches when she remembers the worried look on Hulk’s face when he saw how scared she was during the gunfire. Hulk then raged until he saved her, making sure to shield her body with his arms the whole time. That’s when Hulk got on the jet and pulled the pilot out…sending them towards the earth.

Paisley winces as she raises her head from the solid mass she’s been laying on, her headache ebbing away little by little. That’s when she realizes the solid mass is lumpy and warm. She regains enough of her bearings to see clearly, and what she sees is that she’s been staring at a bare chest.

A toned bare chest…tan, not green.

The weight she dismissed before now registers as arms wrapped securely around her. The warmth makes her feel safe as she tilts her head up, a small gasp escaping her lips when warm brown eyes meet her bright blue ones. “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?” comes the rumbling voice of Dr. Bruce Banner as his eyes bore into Paisley’s.

Paisley vaguely wonders if his voice sounds like this when he wakes up in the mornings. Instead she asks, “Who?” kicking herself when it comes out dreamy instead of inquisitive.

Bruce sighs, trying not to smile at her tone. “Hulk. Did Hulk hurt you?” he elaborates, bringing Paisley back to the matter at hand.

Paisley blinks at him in confusion. “Of course not. Him and I seem to have some sort of understanding, I would be dead right now if he hadn’t of shielded me. So, thank you, both of you,” she says, a blush creeping onto her face.

Bruce nods, looking at Paisley in wonder. As far as he knows, the Hulk doesn’t like anyone, not even himself. Why would he go out of his way to not hurt someone? Why Paisley of all people? Bruce pauses when he answers his own question, a light blush on his cheeks as he looks away from Paisley’s eyes. “I’m glad you’re safe. That he saved you…maybe he’s not so bad after all,” Bruce mutters, trying not to let his emotions show while this close to Paisley.

Paisley gives a sly smile. “He’s part of you. I don’t think he’s bad at all. He’s kind of cute,” she shrugs, smirking when Bruce’s blush deepens.

“So, you guys gonna stay like that all day?” an old man’s voice suddenly sounds, making the two jump slightly.

Paisley and Bruce sit up quickly, Bruce still holding Paisley tightly as she slides into his lap, both of their attention on the old man in a security guard outfit standing outside of a crater. A crater the two just realized they are sitting in.

That’s when the two geniuses realized the lack of clothing on Bruce. “Oh! I-I’m s-so sorry!” Paisley stutters as she jumps up off Bruce and quickly turns away from him, her pulse jumping to her throat as she looks up towards a giant hole in the ceiling, trying to calm her nerves yet commit the glimpse she got to memory at the same time as she bites her lip hard, forcing herself not to grin.

Muscle, so much muscle…and…

Paisley gives herself a mental shake. Bruce blushes even redder than he already was as he tries to cover himself, both of them boarding on glowing scarlet.

The security guard looks on, a chuckle escaping his lips as she watches the young couple. “Oh, young love,” he smiles wistfully, making the two scientists stiffen, not commenting or correcting the older man.

“You fell out of the sky,” the guard says, breaking the awkward silence.

Paisley examines the hole in the ceiling again. Yep, that had to be where they fell from.

“Did I hurt anybody?” Bruce asks fearfully, making Paisley’s heart ache. He still didn’t see the good in Hulk, even after he saved her.

The security guard gestures around. “There's nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare the hell out of some pigeons though.

“Lucky,” Bruce mutters, rubbing his face free of some dirt as he curls into himself, trying to stay covered.

“Or just good aim. You were awake when you fell,” the Security guard provides, making Paisley grin and Bruce look at him slightly stunned.

“You saw?” he states more than asks.

“The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck ass nude, holding her tightly. Seemed worried that she would get hurt if you let her go. Here...” He throws Bruce a pair of big pants.

 Bruce nods in thanks and starts to pull on the pants, Paisley turns back towards him, shamelessly taking in his still uncovered torso as he covers the important bits.

“I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size fella,” the security guard drones.

Bruce nods. “Thank you,” he says as he stands, noticing Paisley’s stare. He gives her the smallest of smiles, ducking his head down to finish zipping and buckling the pants.

“Are you an alien?” the security guard suddenly asks, making Paisley blink.

“What?” she and Bruce ask in unison.

“From outer space, an alien?” the guard repeats.

“No,” Bruce says in an adorably confused way.

“Well then, son, you've got a condition,” the guard says seriously.

Paisley snorts, bending over as she starts laughing uncontrollably. The way he said it! He was so serious!

Bruce rolls his eyes at Paisley, shaking his head as he walks up to her.

Paisley stands straight, reining in her laughs as she looks up at Bruce, her eyes twinkling with barley suppressed amusement.

“I don’t know if I should be offended that you’re laughing or start laughing with you,” Bruce says honestly as he sighs.

Paisley shrugs. “We all need a good laugh every now and then. I just when skydiving with the Hulk as my parachute. I needed the laugh,” she confesses.

At the reminder, Bruce looks Paisley over, making sure that she’s unharmed by the fall. “I still don’t see how you’re unharmed. There’s no way you walked away from that unscathed,” Bruce mutters.

Paisley rolls her eyes before placing her arms around Bruce’s waist, revealing in the feeling of his bare torso against her cheek as she hugs him.

At first, Bruce stiffens, but soon he starts to wrap his arms around her waist, hugging her back hesitantly.

“I’m fine. The worst I got is a headache and some bruises. When the explosion went off you took most of the impact leaving me with a couple superficial bruises. After Hulk took over, he took great care of me,” Paisley mutters as she smiles up at Bruce. “I’m thankful to you both. Now, let’s get out of here. You saw the screen, where is that tesseract?”

Bruce looks down at Paisley, mystified by the fact that this woman that could look past the outer shell and see Hulk in a way he hadn’t even thought of. Not only that, but she saw right through him as well. Sighing, Bruce looks around the destroyed building. “We’re gonna need a way to get to Stark Tower. That’s where it’s at…I don’t know if I’ll stay…I’m not…I can’t…”

Paisley takes hold of Bruce’s face, forcing him to focus on her. “Hey, it’s alright. I know you’re scared, you don’t want to be him, but he doesn’t want to be you either. There are two minds up here and you both need to work together. The world needs Hulk and Bruce Banner,” she says, trying to calm and motivate him.

Bruce sighs, closing his eyes tightly before opening them and giving a small nod. “Okay. But then we’re staying out of fights from now on,” he warns.

Paisley gives a sly smirk. “ _We_?” she asks.

Bruce blushes, awkwardly stumbling over his words to correct himself, but he fails miserably as Paisley just stares at him with amusement.

She lets a grin slip across her face. “Come on, Handsome we have somewhere to be,” she teases as she lets him go, remaining in his space as she winks at him with a playful smirk.

Bruce clears his throat and nods, glad Paisley changed the topic. “Y-yeah, good idea,” he stutters.

“So. Do you guys need a ride?” the security guard asks.

Paisley and Bruce freeze again, they’d forgotten they had company.

“U-Um. Yes. That’d be great,” Bruce nods, stepping away from Paisley slightly, only for her to grab hold of his hand.

“I have a shirt too if you’ll be needing it,” the guard says, a smirk on his face as he looks between Paisley and Bruce.

“No thanks,” Paisley says at the same time that Bruce says yes.

The two look between each other. Paisley smirking and Bruce trying hard not to fidget as he blinks at her in surprise.

Paisley shrugs, looking away as the guard walks down and hands Bruce the mentioned shirt.

“you’re going to be the death of me,” Bruce mutters as he slides on the button-up.

“Hmmm. Yes, I believe it’s in my blood,” she says wistfully as she watches him button up the shirt, hiding his chest from her view once more.

Bruce blushes at the attention before turning to the guard and discussing the possibility of getting a vehicle of some kind.

Paisley follows behind him, a pleased smirk on her lips.


	24. Avengers - Aisley

Upon her arrival in the city, the goddess’ eyes grew wide as one of the quinjets grew closer to the ground, fire and smoke trailing behind. It slammed directly into the pavement, the engine sputtering and eventually stopping. Aisley darted towards the damaged bird, praying to the gods that its passengers were alright. The ramp slammed to the ground and, to her relief, the star-spangled Captain marched down, followed by the ginger agent and a man she had yet to meet.

“Hello again, Captain,” said Aisley, happy to be around someone she was familiar with. Being alone in a battle was never easy.

“Decided to join the fight, I see,” Captain nodded towards her.

“I have never been one to back down from situations like this,” admitted Aisley, observing the chaos surrounding them.

“Well then you two have something in common,” said the new man as he approached the young warrior and offered her a hand. “We haven’t met before. I’m Clint.”

“Aisley Darshanadottir, guardian of Prince Thor and Prince Loki!” she declared, gripping the archer’s hand tightly as she shook it.

“Another god?” Clint asked, shaking the pain off his hand after she released it.

“I am!” said Aisley proudly. She noticed the man adjusting a small device in his ear. A hearing aid? She didn’t have much time to wonder about it due to the ginger agent chiming in.

“This isn’t a very good time for introductions, boys,” Natasha commented, her blue eyes locked on the wormhole in the sky.

The group became startled by a loud roar coming from the portal. The warrior almost regretted looking upwards. Above them a large Chitauri Leviathan passed through the portal, carrying hundreds of soldiers on its back. Some jumped off and attached themselves to buildings, others fired energy rifles at innocent civilians.

“Stark, are you seeing this?” Captain asked through, what Aisley assumed, a communication device in his ear. He paused as he waited for a response, then “Banner and Paisley?”

Captain looked towards Aisley questioningly, but she could only shrug. She had lost track of her new friend after the explosion earlier. Hopefully they were alright. She wanted them to be somewhere safe. Neither of them needed to experience this.

“We need to get closer to the fight,” demanded the captain as he turned to the rest of the crew. They nodded in agreement then the four of them ran towards the action. Soon enough, they found themselves in traffic. Scanning the sky, Aisley saw Loki soaring through the sky on a Chitauri sort of vehicle, his army not far behind. Just like his followers, he too fired at innocent beings.

“Those people need assistance down there,” Captain stated, referring to the civilians below the bridge. Moments later, Chitauri soldiers landed near the group and begin to fire.

Agent Romanoff pulled out two pistols from her thigh holsters and fired back at the alien soldiers. “We got this. It’s good. Go!”

Captain turned to Clint. “You think you can hold them off?”

“Captain.” Clint pulled a trigger on his bow, allowing it to choose an arrow for him. “It would be my genuine pleasure.”

Aisley raised an eyebrow and smirked as Clint shot an arrow at a soldier’s head. This man seemed to have no fear. Something she rather admired. Suddenly she felt a strong grip on her shoulder. Looking to her side, she suddenly became very aware of Captain America being ever-so-slightly taller than her. “Let’s go, Aisley,” he said, then headed towards the edge of the bridge.

That was the first time the captain ever said her name. Did that mean he was another new friend? Hopefully so. She quickly joined him at the edge of the bridge, looking down at the traffic and helpless civilians.

“Get ready to jump.”

“You know, I once heard a Midgardian phrase that about this situation.”

Captain tilted his head in confusion.

“Something about ‘if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?’”

Steve couldn’t help but laugh. Of all the human phrases to know, it had to be that one. “Never thought it would actually happen, did you?”

Aisley shook her head, unable to force back a small smile. “I never thought any of this would happen.”

Steve shrugged. She had a point. “On the count of three. One…two…” He grabbed the Asgardian’s hand jumped just before he got to three, Aisley’s purple cloak flowing behind her. Just before the duo collided with concrete, he buried the young warrior in his embrace, making sure she didn’t hit the ground too hard.

“You okay, kid?” Steve asked through a groan as he pulled both of them up.

“That was fun! Let’s do it again,” the Asgardian laughed, adrenaline causing her blue eyes to glow.

“Maybe another time,” said the captain, forcing back a smile. Something about this girl reminded him of his younger self. “We have a city to save.”

Aisley nodded as the two of them headed towards the center of the city. The police had the place surrounded in attempt to help during this battle. Captain Rogers jumped on the top of a police car, Aisley scrambling onto the hood. The group of cops stared at them, unsure of what to think of this strange looking duo.

“I need men in these buildings. There are people inside that can run into the line of fire. You take them through the basement or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th,” Steve ordered, gesturing towards the places in which the perimeter needs to be.

“Why the hell should I take orders from you?” asked the ignorant police sergeant. Aisley was close to going off on the man until an explosion came up behind Captain Rogers. He blocked an energy blast with his star-spangled shield as Aisley proceeded to conjure her sword and relieve two Chitauri soldiers of their heads. The sergeant watched in awe before turning and ordering his men to set a perimeter.

Once the perimeter was set, the duo joined the assassins back on the bridge. More Chitauri. A lot of them. Aisley began to wonder if they’re far too outnumbered…until a strike of lightning channeled electricity directly into the soldiers, causing them to be blasted back in a massive shockwave. The Chitauri soldiers dropped to the ground just as Thor landed beside the team.

Thor smiled gently at his guard, putting a hand on her shoulder as a way of reassuring her.

“What's the story upstairs?” asked the captain.

“The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable.”

A pause. Perhaps a response, Aisley assumed, from Stark.

“How do we do this?” Natasha asked, turning to Captain Rogers.

“As a team.”

“I have unfinished business with Loki.”

“We _all_ do,” Aisley remarked in a slightly irritated tone.

“Yeah,” said Clint, backing up the other Asgardian. “Get in line.”

“Save it,” Captain demanded, stopping a preventing a potential argument. “Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us...”

The captain’s orders were interrupted by the sudden sound of a motorbike. Observing her surroundings, Aisley caught sight of her two new friends arriving at the fight. She couldn’t help but smirk at the sight of Bruce politely helping Paisley off the bike. Once the young scientist locked eyes with the Asgardian, they exchanged smiles. They were imbeciles for coming back, but she respected them. They were putting their lives at stake for the sake of others. A concept Aisley was quite familiar with.

“So, this all seems horrible,” Bruce commented.

“I’ve seen worse,” Natasha remarks. Aisley couldn’t help but find that comment quite rude. Paisley’s glare confirmed that the two were in agreement.

“Stark. We got them,” Steve confirmed through his communicating device. A pause as Tony replies, then “Just like you said.”

Aisley faintly heard Stark say something about a party through Cap’s communicator. Before the comment can register in her head, the giant Chitauri Leviathan began to head towards them.

“I… I don’t see how that’s a party…” Agent Romanoff commented.

“Yeeeeaaah. That’s a nope,” Paisley muttered.

Doctor Banner glanced at Steve, then at Aisley. The warrior nodded, knowing they both had the same thought.

Bruce turned to the young redhead, brushing a strand of hair from her pale face. They exchanged whispers before Bruce gestured her towards the younger Asgardian. Aisley placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Doctor Banner,” said the captain. “Now might be a good time for you to get angry.”

“That’s my secret, Captain,” Bruce said with a small smile as he walked confidently towards the being. Something told Aisley that the presence of the redhead was causing him to subconsciously show off a bit. “I’m always angry.”

With that remark, the man’s body began to tint green as it swelled and stretched. “Hulk is out to play,” Paisley mused, causing Aisley to smirk and raise an eyebrow at her.

“Fun,” Aisley smiled as the green man punched the Leviathan directly in the nose, causing it to flip over. Mere seconds later, Tony arrived and blasted a rocket directly into the creature’s middle. Everyone found a way to cover themselves as chunks of meat collided with pavement. Aisley pulled her friend closer, using her purple cloak to shield them from the Chitauri pieces.

The creature’s lifeless body slid across the pavement as civilians ran away in fear of getting hit.

“Ugh. I’m a vegetarian now, thanks,” Paisley remarked, disgusted by the burning flesh.

Aisley crinkled her nose upon seeing the bloodstains in her cloak. That would not be easy to clean. “Disgusting.”

The Chitauri soldiers who jumped off the creature earlier suddenly surround them. The Hulk let out a large roar as the man of iron landed beside him. The team formed a circle as they observed the damage being done to the city, Aisley making sure she stays close to her friend.

“Damn, we look badass,” Paisley mumbled. Aisley chuckled and looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.

The two friends looked up into the sky, noticing the influx of aliens coming through the portal. Paisley inched closer to Hulk. Aisley stood her ground.

“Do not worry, my friend,” the Asgardian quietly assured her. “Between me and Hulk, you will be just fine.”

“Guys,” Natasha said, staring up at all the new aliens.

“Call it, Cap,” Tony said, turning to the star-spangled captain.

Steve observed the now-assembled team as he considered how each person could be of help in this situation. “Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash.”

Clint turned to face Tony. “Wanna give me a lift?”

“Right. Better clench up, Legolas.” Tony grabbed Clint and lifted the two of them from the ground, dropping Clint off on the closest building.

“Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up,” Captain demanded as Thor swung Mjolnir in a circle and flew towards the sky. He then turned to the smaller Stark. “You need to get yourself somewhere safe and out of the line of fire, got it?”

Aisley couldn’t help but find Paisley’s glare to be rather cute. She was trying to be threatening but it wasn’t quite working. One of her snarky remarks, however, lead to a short squabble between the scientist and the captain.

“I can help!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Steve, eyeing the aliens above them. His voice became firm as his eyes darted to the redhead once again. “Go take cover somewhere.”

“Excuse me! I am NOT some dame that needs protecting!”

This caused Aisley to force back a smile. Not only was her little temper adorable, but she admired that the scientist stood up for herself.

Captain Rogers was taken aback by the little outburst. After he recovered, however, he glared at her. Icy blue eyes battling each other. “This is a real fight that could get us all killed. You don’t have a way to protect yourself. No weapon and no fighting experience. All you have is a couple of PhDs and they won’t protect you from a blast made by one of those guns!”

“What if I can help? Are you just going to let yourselves be outnumbered even more cause you won’t use all the people at your disposal?”

Steve stepped so close to Paisley that she had to look directly up at him to see his face. Natasha and Aisley exchanged a concerned glance and a raised eyebrow.

“We don’t have time for this- “

“Exactly! We don’t have time for this shit! So, you’d better tell me what my goddamned orders are!” Paisley screamed before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “I’ve got to do something! I’m on this goddamned team too! If I die then I die, that’s what I signed up for isn’t it? I’ve got no right to do any less! I can take care of my goddamned self! Now. Give. Me. An. Order!”

Steve paused, stepping back as realization washed over him. He glanced at the scientist and the Asgardian. There had always been something familiar about the two of them, but he couldn’t quite but his finger on it. But now, he was seeing them in a whole new light. Stubborn. Determined. Willing to put others above themselves without a second thought. They were just like _him._

Back in the 40s, that kid from Brooklyn would never back down from a fight. And neither will these two.

 He sighed. “You’ve got a big heart, kid,” he said, then turned to the rest of the remaining team. “You, Nat, and Aisley will all stay here with me on the ground, keep the fighting here,” he ordered, then turned to the green rage monster. “And Hulk. Smash!”

Hulk grinned, turning to brush a single finger against Paisley’s cheek, then with the Captain’s final order, Hulk smiled and leaped into the air. Soaring to the nearest building, he snapped many Chitauri soldiers in half. From the corner of her eye, Aisley saw an amused grin grow across her friend’s face as she watched the green man. The goddess nudged her and gave her a knowing wink. Paisley simply shook her head in response.

“I’m gonna need some of my father’s tech. I’ll be right back,” her friend informed the team.

“Paisley, no!” Aisley exclaimed as she watched her friend dart towards the large tower. “It’s dangerous!”

“Don’t worry about me, worry about you!” Paisley shouted over her shoulder.

Aisley paused a moment, her friend’s words echoing in her head. _‘Worry about you.’_ Nobody had ever told her that before. She was always ordered to worry about someone else. Protect this person, protect that person. She never thought much of herself or her own life. She was just a guard. She was expendable. But perhaps…her life was more important than she thought.

A firm grip on the goddess’ shoulder brought her back to reality. She looked up to see the captain smiling down at her, almost as though he knew her exact thoughts. A grin grew across the young woman’s face. In that moment, she knew she had found her family here on this little planet.

A loud crash nearly caused her to jump out of her skin. A Chitauri soldier had destroyed a small coffee shop near them. Aisley conjured her sword once again and sliced directly through the being’s torso.

Turning, she noticed a group of them heading towards the agent. Another was headed towards the captain. Aisley drew a slow breath, forcing herself to focus, before two other Aisleys appeared behind the Chituari groups and sliced them apart one by one. The original Aisley elegantly spun around on her toes and cut through a solider she had felt approaching her.

She whipped her head around at the sound of the captain’s voice. “Illusionist?”

“Of course,” she smiled as the other Aisleys disappeared. “I’m quite magical, you know.”

Captain chuckled.

“You must be fun at parties,” said Natasha, firing her pistols at a couple of the soldiers. “Illusions, fighting skills. You must get all the guys.”

Aisley chuckled. She found herself back to back with the ginger agent, fighting off any aliens that came their way. “It sounds like you’re interested, Miss Romanoff,” she remarked. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’m not interested.”

“Not interested in guys or girls?”

“Not interested in _dating.”_

“Really? Not even if they were magical like you?”

Aisley sliced through another alien then shrugged. “You ask fair question, agent.”

“Alright ladies, let’s break up the gossip,” commented Steve, kicking a limp Chitauri body away from him. “We have a battle going on.”

Aisley and Natasha laughed simultaneously. “Don’t worry, Cap,” Natasha remarked. “We’ll find you someone, too.”

This sort of fighting went on and on, ripping apart alien bodies while making casual conversation. It seemed as though this battle would go on forever. Aisley wondered if perhaps that was part of Loki’s plan. An endless war. If she didn’t know any better, she would tell herself that Loki would never cause such chaos. But that optimistic part of her was gone. It died in the same moment Agent Coulson did.

“Captain,” said Agent Romanoff through heavy breathing. “None of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal.”

“She’s right,” Aisley agreed. “This battle has the potential to last forever.”

“Our biggest guns couldn't touch it,” Cap reminded them.

“Well, maybe it's not about guns,” said Romanoff, gesturing to the Chitauri chariots soaring above them. She turned to the young goddess. “You mind coming with me and helping a girl out?”

Aisley nodded.

“You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride.”

“I got a ride. I could use a lift though.” Natasha grabbed Aisley’s hand, squeezing it tight.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah,” Natasha said hesitantly. “It's gonna be fun.”

Then, the duo sped towards Captain America. They ran up the vehicle in front of them and jumped onto the star-spangled shield. Like a spring, the captain pushed them up into the air where they grabbed onto one of the chariots.

“Good job,” said Natasha breathlessly as Aisley helped pull her up onto the flying vehicle. Once her feet were stable, Nat jammed her knives into the Chitauri drivers center and proceeded to take control of the chariot.

Aisley whipped her head around at the familiar sound of an arc reactor. Looking behind them, she saw her new friend and her father fighting off any soldiers following them. Paisley appeared to have taken the liberty of using her father’s iron gloves and boots and even an Iron Man helmet. The Stark duo flew past the chariot once the coast was clear, Paisley giving Aisley a high-five as they did so.

“You ladies are doing great, work those sexy bodies!” Paisley encouraged, sounding exactly like her father.

Aisley smiled as she watched the two of them land on the ground near Captain America.

The adrenaline rush began to take effect on the goddess. A smile stretched across her freckled face. She took her hair out of its messy braid, feeling the wind caress her blonde locks. Her plum purple cloak tugged lightly on her shoulders as it billowed behind her. The chariot twisted and turned throughout the city, causing her heart rate to speed up.

Suddenly, the vehicle sputtered as a blast hit them from behind. Aisley looked over her shoulder, sighing at the sight. “Loki,” she grumbled.

“Oh, you,” Nat commented upon noticing Loki as well. The two began to race, dodging any attacks that come their way.

“Uh…a little help!” said Romanoff into her communicator.

Soon enough, a small arrow is headed straight towards Loki’s head. Aisley’s heart skipped a beat, thinking it would go directly through him. It didn’t. He caught it. He looked to the side with a smirk just before the arrow exploded in his face and knocked him off his chariot.

Aisley glanced in the direction Loki had been looking and noticed the man named Clint. She felt a great sense of respect for this person. He managed to trick the god of tricksters with a simple arrow.

“Let’s go!” said Nat, cutting off the goddess’ train of thought and grabbing her hand once again. Before she knew it, the two of them jumped off the flying vehicle and onto the tower of Stark. Natasha rolled to the edge. Aisley stayed down for a moment in attempt to catch her breath before standing and helping the agent get to her feet.

The two of them stumbled towards the large machine creating the wormhole. Aisley noticed Doctor Eric Selvig laying on the ground, too weak to stand. She helped him sit up as best as possible.

“Doctor,” said Natasha.

“Are you alright?” asked Aisley.

“Loki's scepter, the energy...” said the doctor, his mind too scrambled to answer the question. “The Tesseract can fight. You can't protect yourself.”

“It's not your fault,” Natasha reassured him in a gentle tone. “You didn't know what you were doing.”

“Well, actually I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source,” Selvig explained.

“Loki's scepter,” said Agent Romanoff.

“It might be able to close the portal,” he said, then glanced down from edge of the building. “And I'm looking right at it.”

“Aisley,” said Natasha in a patient voice. Aisley’s wide blue eyes met with hers. “Think you can handle that scepter?”

Aisley glanced down at the scepter, then back at the agent. She nodded.

Once Natasha retrieved the scepter and placed it in Aisley’s hands, Eric Selvig began click-clacking away at his laptop. Aisley slowly pushed the scepter into the forcefield. It wasn’t exactly easy. The forcefield decided to fight back. But she was Asgardian. She wouldn’t let a petty forcefield defeat her.

Aisley’s eyes brightened as the scepter came closer and closer to the tesseract. “I can do it!” she shouted to Natasha.

“She can close it!” Natasha exclaimed through her communicator. “Can anybody hear me? Aisley can shut the portal down!”

Aisley looked over her shoulder for Natasha’s signal to close the portal. It never came. Instead the agent raised a hand, implying for her to keep the scepter in the forcefield a bit longer. Romanoff took her communicator from her ear and placed it into Aisley’s.

“Stark, you know that's a one-way trip?” said the captain. But what was he talking about?

Aisley gazed back up at the portal, astonished at what she saw. Tony Stark was flying directly into it while carrying, what appeared to be, a nuclear weapon. She heard more talking in the communicating device but nothing was registering in her mind as the man flew higher and higher into the sky. Her heart raced. Suddenly every word in the communicator was registering in her mind. Stark was saying goodbye to his daughter.

No.

Paisley had just gotten to meet her father. She didn’t want her friend to have her only family taken away from her. It hurt Aisley to think about her own family. Her biological family. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to finally meet them but have them taken away.

Now Paisley was saying her goodbye. No. No, no, no. This can’t be the end.

Finally, Stark entered the endless void known as space.

“The Chitauri are down,” Natasha stated, looking over the city. “Come on, Stark…”

Aisley forced back tears, her eyes misty. _‘No more tears,’_ she reminded herself.

There was a pause in the communication, everyone staying silent. The tension grew thicker and thicker. Finally, Cap spoke up. “Close it.”

Aisley’s shoulders slumped. Tony is still not out of the portal. But they no longer had enough time. She had to do this. _‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry. Stay strong for your friend!’_ The scepter was quickly pulled from the forcefield, the Tesseract turning off its energy beam. The portal began to shrink.

She felt another hand on her shoulder, gentle this time. Looking to her side, Aisley saw Natasha gesturing to the sky with a smile. A small figure was hurling back to earth. After a moment, she realized it was none other than Tony Stark.

“Son of a gun!” said the captain to himself, though his comment was well heard throughout the communicator. Aisley realized warm tears had begun to flow down her face despite her efforts.

Before she knew it, Hulk roared past the trio on Stark tower. He caught the man of iron and clung to a building, assuring he landed safely.

“Nice catch!” Aisley exclaimed as she jumped up in excitement, scepter still in hand. Natasha chuckled at her enthusiasm.

The goddess set the scepter down as she, the doctor, and the agent watched the events unfold downstairs. Tony’s body appeared to be limp. Paisley had hunched over him, yelling words that were incoherent from this distance.

Aisley jumped once again at the sound of Hulk’s ear-piercing yell. Tony’s head flew up and she could hear him gasping for air thanks to the comm.

Natasha raised an eyebrow at Paisley’s reaction. “Did…did she just punch her dad in the face?”

With that small comment, the goddess broke into hysterics. Tears streamed down her pale face as she fell to the floor with laughter. Around her, Romanoff and Selvig couldn’t help but giggle as well.

“What the hell? What just happened?” Tony asked from the communicator. “Please tell me nobody kissed me.”

“We won.”

Aisley’s laughter stopped after her ear drum was nearly blown out from Paisley’s yelling. “You’re a fucking idiot! I hate you so goddamn much!”

The goddess scrambled to her feet in order to glance over the side of Stark tower. Her new friend had thrown herself onto her father, hugging him tight. Aisley smiled to herself. Yes, she had indeed found her family here on earth. They were all dysfunctional as Hel, but she loved each and every one of them.

“Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it.”

Thor’s booming voice could be heard through one of the comms. “We’re not finished yet.”

“And then shawarma after,” said Tony.

Soon, the Avengers had reassembled in Stark tower. Aisley gave her scientist friend a rewarding pat on the back along with a smile. The captain gestured the two of them towards the main room inside the tower. There, Loki lay beaten and bruised. His breathing was heavy and his emerald eyes were pleading as he looked up at the team who surrounded him.

“If it's all the same to you…I think I’ll have that drink now.”


	25. Avengers - Paisley

Paisley’s heart hammers in her chest as she hugs Bruce tightly, almost bruising, a scream caught in the back of her throat as air rushes past them.

“You can fall through the sky, but a motorcycle freaks you out?” Bruce says in disbelief over the wind whipping around them as he drives towards New York.

Paisley would glare at Bruce if that didn’t mean she’d have to lift her head from where she’s currently burying it in Bruce’s back. “Fuck off, Banner! I was unconscious during that fall!” she yells.

Bruce winces at the volume but chuckles as he goes over a pothole that makes Paisley yelp and cling to him even tightly.

“I hate you!” Paisley yells, feeling the vibration of Bruce’s laughing as she huddles closer to him.

“Somehow I doubt that,” Bruce smirks, feeling content for the first time in a long time. If only they weren’t on their way towards danger, possibly their deaths. He’d love to be like this with Paisley, making her laugh and squeal. It was relaxing, made him feel normal.

“I swear to god if we crash I won’t talk to you for a month!” Paisley yells over the wind as they round a tight corner.

Bruce’s heart flutters at the implication. “Does that mean you plan on seeing me after this?” he asks over the wind.

Paisley scoots closer, pressing her front fully into his back, feeling every inch of him as she moves her arms from around his waist to resting against his chest. Paisley then raises her head, so her lips are brushing against Bruce’s ear. “That all depends on you, Dr. Banner,” she replies just loud enough for him to hear over the wind. Paisley bites her lip, pleased when she feels a shiver run down Bruce’s back.

“You are bad for my health,” Bruce says, a smirk on his own face as he glances back at Paisley, his eyes dancing as they flash green for a spit second, enough for Paisley to see just how much she does affect him.

Paisley rests her chin on Bruce’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Handsome. I’ll go easy on you,” Paisley teases.

Bruce raises a brow and swerves the bike, making Paisley squeal and dig her nails into the front of Bruce’s shirt. Bruce let’s out a hearty laugh, probably the first fun laugh he’s had in a while.

Paisley shakes her head, glaring at him as she hits his chest. “Asshole!” she laughs, not as mad as she wants to be when she sees the grin on his face. Rolling her eyes, Paisley rests her head back on his shoulder lightly, starting to enjoy the ride as the heat from Bruce’s back seeps into her chest.

She’d forgotten to put her lab coat on that morning and was now regretting it as they came up on New York, only wearing a tank top and baggy jeans for protection.

“Oh my god,” Paisley breathes when she sees the giant ass portal hovering threateningly over the city. Creatures coming out of the hole nonstop.

Looking around, Paisley can see Tony flying around in his suit and as they made their way through the streets, she spotted the rest of the Avengers standing around, coming up with a game plan.

“There,” she says to Bruce. He nods and moves the bike that direction.

Steve spots them first as their talking comes to a stop.

The motorcycle stops, and Bruce hops off, helping Paisley get off before taking her hand and walking towards the team, his eyes looking around the partly destroyed city.

Paisley locks eyes with Aisley, grinning when she sees her new friend is alive and relatively safe.

“So, this all seems horrible,” Bruce comments.

“I’ve seen worse” Natasha blurts out, making Paisley glare at her and growl.

Bruce squeezes Paisley’s hand reassuringly before shrugging at Natasha. “Sorry,” he provides, genuinely troubled by whatever he might have done.

Natasha shakes her head. “No. We could use a little worse,” she says with a slight nod.

Steve speaks into a comm, his eyes on Bruce and Paisley. “Stark. We got them,” there’s a pause as Tony replies. Whatever it is, Steve nods. “Just like you said.”

Tony apparently says something else because next thing Paisley knows, everyone is looking look up, getting ready for something. Blinking, Paisley turns, her eyes going wide when she spots a giant flying _thing_ heading their way, Tony leading it towards them.

“I... I don't see how that's a party...” Natasha says, leading Paisley to believe that Tony wanted the beast to come to them.

“Yeeeeaaah. That’s a nope,” Paisley mutters, holding Bruce’s hand tighter than before as she steps closer to him.

Bruce looks at Steve, Steve looking right back at him. He gives a glance to Aisley, knowing they were on the same page. The good doctor then looks down at Paisley, softly brushing her cheek. “Be safe,” he whispers.

“Hulk won’t let anything happen to me,” she whispers back when she sees what he’s about to do. Bruce gives her a small smile before letting her hand go and pushing her in Aisley’s direction as he walks towards the monster heading their way, now street level.

“Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry,” Steve advices when he sees Bruce walking forwards.

Bruce continues walking forward as he looks back at him with a smile. “That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry,” he says confidently as he turns back, his body starting to swell and stretch and harden as it tints green.

“Hulk is out to play,” Paisley muses from next to the Asgardian guard just as Hulk punches the Chitauri leviathan in the nose. The force sends the creature flips over, heading right for the Avengers.

“Fun,” Aisley smiles.

Paisley watches in amazement as Tony, in mid-flight, extends his arm out and a rocket shoots out, hitting the creature in a soft spot that blows it’s middle. Everyone takes cover, chunks of meat hit the pavement and Paisley ducks, Aisley dragging Paisley closer as she uses her cloak to keep them safe from the falling pieces.

The creature falls, dead as it’s body skids across the pavement, civilians running out the way, so they don’t get hit.

When it’s over, Aisley shakes out her cloak with a disgruntled look on her face before standing and helping Paisley to her feet.

“Ugh. I’m vegetarian now, thanks” Paisley says in disgust as she looks down at the still sizzling flesh.

Aisley crinkles her nose, seeing the fleshy pieces still clinging to her cloak as she shakes it off, muttering “disgusting,” as she does so.

Chitauri that jumped off the creature now surround them, screeching in rage.

Tony flies lower and lands next to Hulk who lets out a giant roar towards the Chitauri.

Looking around, Paisley notices that everyone stands in a circle, facing outward as they look around at the enemy.

“Damn, we look badass,” Paisley whispers from in between Hulk and Aisley, only Aisley hearing her as she looks down at Paisley with a raise brow, chuckling a bit.

Paisley shrugs and looks up, her eyes going wide when she sees that there are thousands more Chitauri suddenly flying through the portal, with at least two more giant flying creatures. Paisley inches closer to Hulk as she looks at the Chitauri. Those things were freaky, and deadly.

Aisley, seeing her friends distress frowns a little. “Do not worry, my friend,” the Asgardian quietly assures. “Between me and Hulk, you will be just fine,” she promises.

“Guys” Natasha says, noticing the influx of aliens as well.

“Call it, Cap” Tony says, turning to the star-spangled man with a plan.

Steve looked over the team, assessing them and what he knew each member could handle, how they could work together. “Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash.”

Clint, Paisley just now acknowledges, turns to Tony. “Wanna give me a lift?”

Tony turns to Paisley, giving her a nod of acknowledgment before turning back to Clint. “Right, better clench up, Legolas,” he says in warning as he grabs Clint as the two head off to take their positions.

“Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up,” Steve orders.

Thor swings Mjolnir in a circle without a second thought and flies towards the sky to do his part.

Turning to Paisley, Steve frowns. She’s doesn’t have a suit or special skills of any sort, just a teleporter she made in her lab. It’s too risky to use the teleporter here with all the destroyed buildings. The only word he can think to describe her on the battlefield at this moment is vulnerable. “You need to get yourself somewhere safe and out of the line of fire, got it?” he asks, already turning to the rest of the group to give them their orders.

“I can help!” Paisley protests, a heavy glare set into her face.

Steve doesn’t even turn to her, keeping his eyes on the aliens flying overhead. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, go take cover somewhere,” he repeats, firmer this time.

Paisley stops him, however, with a shrill scream of “excuse me! I am NOT some dame that needs protecting!” gaining Steve’s undivided attention as he stares wide-eyed at the small glaring redhead.

Recovering from the outburst, Steve turns to her fully and glares. “This is real, a fight that could get us all killed. You don’t have a way to protect yourself. No weapon and no fighting experience. All you have are a couple of PhDs and they won’t protect you from a blast made by one of those guns!”

“What if I can help? Are you just going to let yourselves be outnumbered even more cause you won’t use all the people at your disposal?”

Steve sets his jaw, stepping so close to Paisley that she has to look up at him in order to see his face. “We don’t have time for this…”

Paisley cuts him off, stepping right into Steve’s personal space, going so far as to stand on the tips of her toes as she looks directly into Steve’s eyes. “Exactly! We don’t have time for this shit! So, you’d better tell me what my goddamned orders are!” she screams before closing her eyes and taking a deep breathe. She then stands flat on her feet, her shoulders tense and her posture as straight as a board.

Opening her eyes, Paisley looks right into Steve’s baby blue’s with her own unwavering blues. “I’ve got to do something! I’m on this goddamned team too! If I die then I die, that’s what I signed up for, isn’t it? I’ve got no right to do any less! I can take care of my goddamned self! Now. Give. Me. My. Orders. Captain!” she declares.

Steve pauses, stepping back slightly as he looks Paisley over in a new light.

This is not the same playful scientist that he met on the Helicarrier, she’s changed within this short amount of time, not too noticeably, but Steve can see it. She has a purpose, do something for the world around her, protect something.

Steve glances at Hulk, yeah, he’s pretty sure he knows what she wants to protect. Glancing at the Asgardian Steve remembers how just before Paisley arrived he had seen his old self in the royal guard, stubborn and unwavering. Now, looking down at the spitfire glaring up at him defiantly like she had something to prove…he could practically see his former self. If Steve doesn’t give her an order, she’ll just go off and help anyway. These two were showed great promise.

Sighing, Steve shakes his head, looking around to steal himself before resting his eyes back on Paisley’s firm gaze. “You’ve got a big heart, kid” he finally says. Paisley breaks out into a huge grin at his reply, knowing she’d gotten through to him.

Still addressing Paisley, Steve turns to look at the remaining team members. “You, Nat, and Aisley will all stay here with me on the ground, keep the fighting here,” he orders before turning to the green rage monster. “And Hulk,” Hulk turns to Steve, awaiting orders. Steve pauses for a moment before nodding to the giant, “smash” is his one-word order.

Hulk grins, loving the plan as he brushes a single finger against Paisley’s cheek in goodbye before jumping into the nearest building, making quick work of the aliens there.

Paisley smiles, a small chuckle escaping her lips as she watches Hulk having fun. Feeling a nudge, Paisley looks up to see Aisley giving her a knowing look as she winks. Paisley shakes her head at the implication, fighting a blush off her face. They’d talk later, more pressing matters at hand. Speaking of…

“I’m gonna need some of my father’s tech. I’ll be right back,” Paisley says, eyeing the Stark Tower. With a nod from Steve, she starts running in that direction, putting coordinates into her teleporter so she could get there quicker.

“Paisley, no! It’s dangerous,” Aisley exclaims, making Paisley pause just before she can hit the button. Did she not hear the rant she just gave Steve?

No, she did. This was just in Aisley’s nature. To watch over others without a thought of herself. It made Paisley sad. Sighing, she looks over her shoulder at Aisley, the goddess looked so concerned, it was touching but this was important. Paisley needs Aisley to understand. “Don’t worry about me, worry about you!” she shouts, catching a glimpse of Aisley’s shocked face before turning back around and slamming her hand over the button, instantly disappearing from the loud chaotic streets.

Paisley appears instead in her father’s workshop, located in the basement of Stark Tower. “I’m a genius!” Paisley squeaks as she kisses her teleporter, pleased at the success.

Paisley can faintly hear the sounds of battle outside but ignores it in favor of asking B.A.S.I.S. to do a scan of the room for any ironman parts laying around.

 **“There’s a few parts on the table to the right, Boss,”** B.A.S.I.S. informs her as the building shakes a bit.

Paisley immediately heads that way, finding a metal table holding pieces of one of her father’s iron man suits. “Jackpot!” she declares.

Suddenly the lights in the lab turn on, making Paisley yelp as she ducks down a bit.

**“Please do not be alarmed, Ms. Chase. Mr. Stark was notified that there was an intruder, patching him through now…”**

There’s a pause before Tony’s voice rumbles around the room. “Kid, mind telling me why you’re sneaking around my lab when there’s a fight going on?” he asks. Paisley pauses, noting that he doesn’t sound angry, more confused.

“I need something to fight with. I thought I could borrow some blasters or something,” she shrugs, picking up the metal hand of the suit.

“Why didn’t you say so! I could even make you your own suit. We could call you Iron Maiden!” Tony says excitedly, getting off task.

Paisley rolls her eyes. “Focus, Tony. How do I work it?” she asks, looking over the hand. Tony chuckles in replay.

Paisley goes to question him when suddenly the hand is opening and latching itself to Paisley’s wrist. She lets out a quick yell, stumbling back into the metal table, but that only has the other hand latch onto her other wrist. “Tony?!” she yells in fright.

Tony chuckles through the speakers. “Relax, kid. I’m just remote controlling them. The blasters are connected to J.A.R.V.I.S. so you don’t need to work about a reactor. J.A.R.V.I.S. will control most of your movements so you can fight and not get killed but you’ll have say so if you move yourself on your own, just don’t fight it. I think you should wear the whole suit, make everyone think there’s two of me for a bit,” he laughs.

Paisley rolls her eyes but calms down at his words, before catching what he says. “Wait! Just give me the hands, boots and legs up to the knees. I don’t want the rest, it’ll make it hard to move,” Paisley requests, she looks down at her arms, remembering that she’s only wearing a tank top. “Add the forearms too, I’m kinda chilly without my lab coat.”

“What about the helmet? Can you at least wear the helmet?” Tony pleads.

Paisley rolls her eyes. “Fine, but only because I don’t want to die and we’re on a time limit here,” she sighs as she puts her hair into a quick bun. Once done, the helmet rises and fixes itself on her face, a screen lighting up with a live feed of her father in the upper corner.

“Hey, Kid! You look great in my stuff. I feel like a proud papa,” he grins.

Paisley rolls her eyes, secretly soaking up the affection from her father. “Yeah, yeah. Enjoy it later. I’m flying out now,” she says pointing a blaster at the ceiling as she fires and flies through the hole, finding herself in the living room with a giant broken window to her left. Perfect.

“I’m flying toward your location now. Also, I’m turning your comm on in the suit, so you can talk to everyone else. Say hi to everyone, Iron Maiden,” Tony smirks.

Paisley rolls her eyes but obliges in true Stark fashion. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve been upgraded! Are we all still alive cause I’m on my way back down,” she smirks, jumping from the window as she flies upward.

“You got a suit? That’s favoritism, Stark, I’m insulted,” comes the voice of Clint as he continues to shoot at aliens.

Paisley laughs, smiling when she sees Tony flying right beside her now.

“Sorry, Legolas, daddy’s little girl gets all the presents,” he smirks, winking at Paisley through the camera of their helmets.

Paisley’s heart warms at Tony treating her like his daughter. She was finally starting to get the family she always wanted.

“Task at hand, guys,” Natasha calls through the comms.

Paisley looks around, spotting Aisley and Nat now on a flying vehicle, alien’s shooting at them from behind.

“Hey, Tony, let’s get those things off their backs, yeah?” Paisley asks as she dives, Tony following suit.

“Sure, why not,” he jokes, already starting to shoot at the aliens.

Paisley grins and starts shooting as well, surprised at how naturally she moved and controlled the partial suit. Well, mostly controlled. J.A.R.V.I.S. would help when she starts doing hand-to-hand combat.

Once the coast is clear, Paisley flies low, seeing Aisley looking at her. She has J.A.R.V.I.S. raise the face of the helmet so she can grin at her new friend. “You ladies are doing great, work those sexy bodies! High-five!” she declares, high-fiving a now amused looking Aisley as they pass.

“Sexy bodies? What team do you bat for?” Clint suddenly asks through the comms.

Paisley cackles as she and Tony land on the ground next to Steve, “hey! I can call a fellow lady sexy and be straight, however, to answer your question, I’m not on a team. I go for anyone that lets me sleep with them,” she says slyly as her helmet flies shut so she can use the targeting system to fire at the aliens in Steve’s blind spot while he and Tony use the combination of Iron Man’s hand boosters at Steve’s shield to make a reflecting beam that takes down nearby Chitauri.

With that, Tony flies off, Clint covering him as he fires arrows at any aliens following. “Huh. Does that make you bisexual?” Clint asks conversationally.

Paisley rolls her eyes, firing at two aliens as she ducks away from another. “Nope” she says as Steve throws his shield in her direction, hitting an alien that tried to sneak up on her while she had been firing at some behind Steve. They nod to each other in thanks and continue fighting.

“I’m confused,” Tony calls over the comms.

“Same here,” Clint adds.

“I might explain one day,” Paisley smirks, ending the conversation as she falls to the ground to avoid being decapitated. She fires both blasters at the same time, sending the alien several yards away, unmoving, before she jumps back to her feet and covers for Steve once more.

“Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison, they caught a lot of civilians there,” Clint warns over the comms.

Paisley turns to Steve, he nods. “I’m on it. Paisley, think you can handle yourse-” Steve cuts himself off as he ducks from Paisley firing at blast his way, only to see the blast hit an alien that had been sneaking up on his six.

Paisley smirks from behind the mask. “I’m perfectly capable. You watch yourself, Cap,” she says, turning to shoot at more Chitauri.

Steve smirks as he runs off, leaving Paisley alone.

While she’s distracted, an alien sneaks up behind her and stabs her in the leg. “Motherfucker! DIE!” she yells, slapping her hand on the alien’s face as she blasts it pointblank, leaving a giant hole as the alien falls to the ground dead.

“That was the most disgusting thing I have ever done…I wanna do it again,” Paisley says as she whirls around and shoots at more Chitauri, limping slightly from the stab wound.

Hulk suddenly crashes down next to Paisley, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Paisley lifts the face of her helmet and smiles at Hulk with narrowed eyes. “You look smug. What have you been up to?” she asks, shooting at some aliens from far off. There aren’t any more in her area.

“Puny god,” is hulks shrugged response as he grins down at Paisley.

Paisley raises a brow, she didn’t know Hulk could talk. “Puny god, huh? Did you beat on Loki?” she asks with a laugh. Hulk’s only response is a triumphant smirk as he picks up Paisley and jumps to another part of the city where there are more Chitauri.

“Thanks for the lift, Sweetie,” Paisley winks at Hulk, her mask going back down as she’s gently set down so she can shoot at more of the Chitauri. Hulk looks at her confused, making Paisley chuckle. “What’s wrong big guy? Don’t like the nickname? I think it suits you. You can give me one too if you’d like,” she shrugs, shooting at another alien.

Hulk steps closer to Paisley, making her halt her shooting to lift her face mask, looking up at him curiously. “What’s up, Sweetie?” she asks.

“Pretty lady,” Hulk says, brushing a finger against Paisley’s cheek for the second time today before he steps back and runs off to fight more aliens.

Paisley blushes and grins after him before flipping her helmet back down, using the boosters to fly up into the air. She spots Steve and Thor, blasting some of the Chitauri they miss as she lands, standing in front of Steve who’s been knocked down by a blast from one of the aliens.

Thor swings his hammer and flips a car over on its side, crushing a few Chitauri soldiers before he walks over to help Steve to his feet. Once stable, Steve holds his shield back up to his chest, breathing heavily.

“You ready for another bout?” Thor asks, also breathing heavily.

“What? You gettin’ sleepy?” Steve rasps.

Paisley rolls her eyes. “Testosterone! I swear!” she calls, shooting at some more Chitauri, careful not to move her left leg as she shifts her weight to the right. Sadly, Steve notices.

“You alright, Paisley?” he asks in concern as he moves to help steady her.

Paisley rolls her eyes and pulls away, limping slightly. “One got me in the thigh, I’ll be fine. Superficial; I can still fight,” she shrugs, blasting at more of the aliens as they start coming closer.

Steve frowns but nods. She really does remind him of himself.

Suddenly, over the comms Nat calls out, “She can close it! Can anybody hear me? Aisley can shut the portal down!”

“Do it!” Steve says but it’s quickly followed by Tony yelling, “no, wait!”

Paisley frowns, he sounded too serious, something wasn’t right.

“Stark, these things are still coming!” Steve yells, looking around.

Paisley’s heart stops with Tony’s next words. “I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it.”

No. She couldn’t lose him, not like this! Not after she’d finally gotten him! “Tony!” Paisley yells, her eyes already swimming with unshed tears as she flips her helmet up, looking up towards the sky where she can just barely make out the being heading right towards the portal.

“Stark, you know that's a one-way trip?” Steve asks, his eyes on Paisley as he watches her face contort with sorrow and grief. Tony doesn’t answer.

Instead, Paisley’s mask flips down of its own volition and Paisley comes face to screen with Tony, a look of guilt written on his face. “Hey, Kid…I’m calling Pepper. I want you guys to meet…even if it’s while I’m saying goodbye” he explains as a dial tone rings out.

Now Paisley’s crying, the tears leaving a trail of burning saltwater down her face that she can’t wipe away as she hugs herself. “P—please…I just got you. I— I want to know you” Paisley pleads, the tears making it hard for her to see Tony’s apologetic face.

“I’m sorry, Kiddo…You know, I’ve never told anyone this, but I’ve always wanted a kid” he says, looking over Paisley’s face, trying to take in every detail, wanting to remember it wherever he finds himself after this. “My old man and I didn’t get along. I wanted to do right by my kid, see them grow into something great, something better than myself…and that’s you.” He pauses to work around the lump building in his throat as he nears the portal. “I didn’t raise you like I should have. That might be for the best, I’m a mess, you would have ended up messed up with me,” he chuckles, but even to his own ears it’s hollow. “What I’m trying to say is…I’m proud of you, I’ve seen your work, seen you around Banner and Hulk. You’re amazing and I’m proud of what you’ve become. I can’t believe you’re my kid, but then again, we Starks are pretty extraordinary,” he jokes, getting a wet laugh out of Paisley.

Tony gives a weak smile, seeing that Pepper didn’t pick up. “Guess you’ll have to meet her on your own. Don’t worry, she’s nice, so long as you don’t do anything stupid, like me.”

“Tony!” Paisley gasps, seeing him almost to the portal. She had to tell him, before it was too late “…I love you. I always have. Even when I didn’t know you. I knew you’d want me, some ingrain feeling I’ve always had that I couldn’t explain,” she says, looking into his hazel eyes with her bright blue ones as the tears continue to spill down her face. “When I found out who you were I was angry, angry that you didn’t know me, that my mother was just another conquest. I let go of the feeling that you’d one day want me. I figured I was just another mistake…it didn’t stop me from loving you though,” Paisley says, sniffling as she feels someone wrapping an arm around her shoulder, it felt like Steve. “I guess I never let go of the little girl in me that just wanted her father…I’m sorry it took so long,” she cries.

Tony frowns, looking at the crying face of his daughter, his little girl. “Hey, please don’t cry, Kiddo. I don’t do good with tears,” he tries to joke, getting a small laugh out of Paisley again. He looks past Paisley’s tear stained face, seeing the portal less than a minute away. “Hey, Paisley…I want you to know…I love you too. I’ve known you for, like, a day and I know it’s true. I guess it’s biological. You know, when a father holds their kid for the first time, sappy, I know. Doesn’t make it any less true. I love you, and I’m proud of the woman you’ve become despite my absence,” Tony says, entering the portal.

Paisley gasps, the signal becoming spotty as her heart clenches, it was now or never “I love you too, Dad!” she cries, just making out the shocked smile on Tony’s face before the signal is lost completely. “Dad? DAD!” Paisley screams, yanking the helmet off her head as she grips it tightly in her hands, her eyes glued to the portal her father just disappeared through.

Seconds pass, turning into minutes. Paisley’s breath hitches as she turns to look up at Steve who still has an arm around Paisley’s shoulders. He looks down, a pained look on his face as Natasha says something over the comms to him that Paisley can’t quite make out. “Close it,” he says in resignation.

Paisley’s heart shatters, the helmet in her hands falling to the ground along with her tears as Steve pulls her into his arms, hugging her tightly while she cries into his chest, unable to watch the portal close, not when it means her father is gone from her life again.

Suddenly Steve releases Paisley. “Son of a gun!” he exclaims, making Paisley look up, the smallest bit of hope igniting in her chest.

Then she sees it.

Him.

Tony was falling, he was alive!

…he was gaining speed!

“He’s not slowing down” Thor yells, swinging Mjolnir around.

“He’s unconscious!” Paisley yells, stepping forwards to use her boosters.

Both Paisley and Thor pause, however, when Hulk suddenly catches Tony, both crashing and sliding down a building before Hulk lands on the ground, throwing Tony off himself.

Paisley’s the first one to them as she crashes to her knees, wincing when she lands on her injured leg but not giving it a second thought as she runs her hands over Tony’s armor. “Tony! Dad! Wake up!” she yells at him.

Steve and Thor make it over and Thor rips off Tony’s helmet. Paisley’s heart stops, seeing Tony’s bloody face, relaxed in his unconscious state. He was unconscious right? He couldn’t be…

No.

Hulk suddenly lets out an ear-piercing yell of fury that almost has Paisley’s heart racing once again, the noise makes Tony’s head fly up as he suddenly gasps for air.

“AH!” Paisley punches Tony in the face from the sudden shock but then gasps as she clasps her hands over her mouth, new tears finding their way down her face as she apologizes repeatedly.

“OW! What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?” Tony starts spouting out, looking around at the four surrounding him.

“We won” Steve breathes, pretty much falling on deaf ears as Paisley starts yelling at Tony.

“You’re a fucking idiot! I hate you so goddamn much!” Paisley exclaims as she throws herself onto Tony, hugging him tightly despite the discomfort of his suit.

Tony smiles up at Paisley, wrapping an arm around her waist and another on the back of her head as he holds her for the first time. Yep, if he didn’t love her before he sure as hell did now. There was no way he was leaving her again, his little girl. “Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it.” Tony says to lighten the mood.

“We’re not finished yet,” Thor says, looking up towards the tower were Loki is.

Tony nods. “And then shawarma after,” Tony declares, patting Paisley a bit as she sits up, helping Tony to stand as she does so.

Tony looks down at Paisley, checking her over. “You’re hurt” he glares when he sees her leg.

Paisley rolls her eyes, “tis but a scratch,” she says in a fake English accent.

Tony smirks, understanding the reference as, also in a fake English accent, he replies, “a scratch?! Your arm’s off!”

Steve and Thor look between the two, utterly confused. “Her leg is wounded. Not her arm, man of iron. Are you sure you’re alright?” Thor asks in concern.

Steve sighs. “It’s another reference isn’t it?” he asks as he shakes his head.

Paisley and Tony give identical grins as they start limping towards the tower. “Come along, Sweetie. We have a god to apprehend,” Paisley says over her shoulder.

Thor and Steve share a look, trying to discern who she’s talking about when Hulk pushes past them, following Paisley like a loyal dog. They both look at Hulk, shocked and impressed before following the three towards the tower.

Once inside, Paisley pulls away from Tony and rushes to Aisley, grinning when the Asgardian pats her on the back and smiles at her for a job well done. Once the two are done with their moment, they turn to see Steve gesturing for them to come to the main room were Loki is.

Paisley looks down at the god of Mischief, laying beaten and bruised in a crater on the floor. To be honest, he looked like shit. Paisley looks towards Hulk, knowing he was responsible for incapacitating the Asgardian during the fight.

Hulk proudly grins but then turns serious once more when the god starts to move around, wincing in pain as he pulls himself into a half sitting position. Loki breathes heavily, his emerald green eyes pleading as he looks over the team that are currently surrounding him, looking royally pissed off and with good reason.

“If it’s all the same to you…I think I’ll have that drink now” the god with a small sigh of defeat.

Hulk gives a snort and Paisley can’t help but agree. He’s be lucky if he even got water at this point.


	26. Avengers - Aisley

Shawarma had a rather strange taste to it. A taste, Aisley assumed, that could only be found on earth. The meat was shaved and wrapped into a small sandwich. She couldn’t decipher if it was turkey or chicken. Or perhaps it was lamb. But the taste or the quality of the food did not matter in that moment. She was so starved from the battle, she felt as though she could eat a thousand plates of this Shawarma sustenance.

Next to her, Thor was scarfing down his food about as quickly as she was. Aisley smirked as she stole a small piece from his dish. Thor’s sapphire eyes glared at her playfully as he took a piece from her plate as well. Ever since the two were children they would have unspoken competitions of who could eat more food. Thor always won.

To Thor’s left was Tony, leaning back in his seat as he chewed the last bit of his food. He watched the two agents from across the table with questioning eyes.

Next to him sat Paisley, resting her head against Bruce’s shoulder as the doctor scarfed down about as much food as the Asgardians. Aisley assumed he was attempting to replenish all the energy that Hulk had taken from him. He would occasionally glance down at Paisley with a smile, the two of them lost in their own little world.

Being in love seemed like such a nice idea, Aisley admitted silently to herself. Part of her wondered what it felt like.

To Bruce’s left sat Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff. Natasha was hunched over while eating her food. Clint was leaned back with a foot on the back of the other agent’s chair, his plate of food in his lap. The two of them seemed to be in the middle of a quiet conversation as they exchanged whispers with one another.

Finally, on Aisley’s right sat Steve. His plate was empty, looking as though he had licked it clean. He rested his head on his fist as his eyes threatened to droop shut. The poor captain definitely needed some rest.

Clint was the first to break the silence. “Alright, I have to ask,” he starts, turning to Paisley. “Earlier you commented on how hot Aisley and Natasha were, now you’re snuggling with Dr. Banner. What gives? Are you bisexual?”

With that question, everyone turned to look at the fiery redhead in wonder. Aisley simply sat there, her fork hanging from her mouth, unsure of what everyone was so curious about. Was it considered unusual for Midgardians to be attracted to more than one gender? It certainly didn’t matter on Asgard.

“I’m not bisexual,” Paisley chuckled as she brushed a lock of ginger hair from her face. “It’s called pansexual. It means I like everyone no matter the gender.”

This made perfect sense to Aisley and Thor. Most Asgardians were like that as well. But Clint simply blinked in confusion. “Isn’t that bisexual?”

“No,” Paisley answered simply, rolling her eyes. “To be Bi means I’d only like girls and guys. I, however, like everyone. Be girl, guy, transgender, no gender. I like ‘em all.”

“I dig it,” Tony nodded.

“I too enjoy various genders,” Aisley said in attempt to let her friend know she isn’t alone in that aspect. Sure, love wasn’t her thing but she occasionally found herself having a simple little crush. Nothing major. Her comment, however, caused everyone to whip their heads around and stare at her. “…what?”

“Let me guess, you like ass?” Paisley grinned, causing Thor to choke on his food. Aisley let out a booming laugh and pat the older Asgardian on the back. “I love a nice ass, though what really draws me in are shoulders.”

“Yes, an ass is quite important,” Aisley agreed. “I also enjoy backs, they’re… _mesmerizing_. Much like eyes.”

Paisley smiled and nodded in agreement. “Eyes! God! I love a pair of soulful eyes,” she said with a dreamy sigh, causing the doctor to blush when she leaned into his side.

“So, does that mean you two are a thing or something?” Clint asked, pointing between the two scientists with his plastic fork.

The two of them exchanged glances for a moment. “’Or something’ sums it up, for now,” Paisley answered.

“’For now?’ I don’t know how much more of these looks from you two I can take. Besides, shouldn’t the big guy be asking for my approval?” Tony asked in his best fatherly tone, looking between the two with a smirk.

“As if,” Paisley rolled her eyes. “That’s if Bruce wants to marry me. He can date me all he wants without talking to you.”

“Buuurrrnn,” said Aisley quietly, but Thor’s smile indicated that he was the only one who had heard her.

“Looks like we’re gonna need to carry Steve back,” remarked Paisley as her eyes lingered to the captain. He had finally given into his droopy eyes and fallen asleep. His head was still somehow propped up on his arm. Part of Aisley was tempted to push him over, but she resisted her mischievous urge. “I don’t blame him, I’m ready to sleep for a week.”

“Guess it’s time to head home. You all are welcome to stay in any of the rooms not destroyed by aliens at my tower,” Tony offered.

Steve jolted awake after everyone stood from the table. He looked around, still disoriented, before turning to Aisley questioningly. “Come, Captain Rogers. We’re heading back to Stark tower. You need your rest,” she said to him quietly. “I can carry you if you’d like.”

Captain chuckled and stood with the rest of them, putting a firm hand on Aisley’s shoulder.

“Sure,” Clint said, responding to Stark’s offer. “I hear the rooms are like a five-star hotel. That’s not a rumor, right?”

“Even better,” Tony smirked before turning to his daughter and the scientist.

Paisley turned to Bruce, biting her lip, before asking if he would like to stay with her in her house just outside of Brooklyn. Seeing Bruce’s surprised expression, Paisley began to take back her offer until he placed a gentle hand on her cheek.

“I’d love to,” Bruce smiled. “We can always visit them at the tower.”

A small remark from Tony was followed by Clint whistling at the couple suggestively. Paisley barked out a laugh as Bruce’s face turned scarlet. Aisley couldn’t help but smirk at the archer’s implication.

“That’s our cue to leave. Don’t worry, Bruce and I will visit and be back to see the Asgardians off. See ya tomorrow,” Paisley winked. Once Bruce had a firm grip around her waist, he said a short goodbye before they both disappeared in a blue light thanks to the woman’s teleporter. Aisley waved at the spot in which they had previously stood.

“So, are you two staying for a while?” Tony asked as he approached the Asgardians. “Or do you have more important duties to attend to back in Lalaland?”

Thor chuckled. He glanced to his side and caught Aisley’s bright blue eyes gazing at him, a smile stretched across her face. “I suppose it would not harm anyone if we stayed for a few days,” he agreed.

“Great, I’ll show you to your rooms,” Tony said. “It’s not exactly Asgard, but I like to think it’s just as good.”

It wasn’t. Half the building was still demolished, rubble and glass spread across the floor. Multiple rooms were gone. Only three of the guest rooms were left, along with Tony’s bedroom. Aisley stood in the doorway of the one she was assigned, pulling her purple cloak off her shoulders and throwing it onto one of the beds. The giant window allowed her to see the destroyed city, policemen and ambulances attempting to calm down any civilians who may have been affected.

She couldn’t help but wonder how Loki was doing. He had been locked up once again, various S.H.I.E.L.D. agents watching over him. He must be lonely. The goddess shook her head and forced herself to think of something else.

“So, Romanoff and Barton have bunked up,” came Stark’s voice from behind. “There’s only two rooms left. You can either have a roommate, or keep this place to yourself and make Thor and Cap share a bed.”

Aisley chuckled and turned to face Stark. “As interesting as the latter option sounds…” she joked. “I’d rather not be alone. Not after all that’s happened.”

“Understandable,” said Tony, placing a hand on the Asgardian’s shoulder. “Should I get Thor then?”

“No.”

This answer caused Tony to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“He snores,” she shrugged. “I’d rather share a room with the captain.”

“Whatever floats your root beer,” Tony shrugged.

Stark marched off to find the captain. Aisley flopped on her bed, tiredness washing over her like a tidal wave. Moments later, Captain Rogers walked in and chuckled at the sight of her sprawled out across the mattress.

“Tony tells me I’m sharing a room with you?” he said, more of a statement than a question.

“If you don’t mind,” Aisley said through a yawn.

“Not at all,” said the captain as he placed his shield against the dirt-stained wall. He then sat next to the Asgardian, trying to find a place on the bed that she hadn’t taken up. “How are you holding up?”

“A couple of scratches and bruises but other than that I’m—”

“No.” Steve shook his head. “I meant, how are you holding up mentally?”

Aisley sat up, her blue eyes gazing at Steve in confusion.

“I know how much you care about Loki,” he started. “It must have been difficult for you to have to fight him. Physically and mentally.”

The spark in Aisley’s eyes had vanished. She gazed down at her empty palms. She felt like breaking. Crying, yelling. Telling him everything she had ever wanted to let out. But she couldn’t. She had to stay strong. Unbreakable, just like a warrior should be.

“You don’t have to talk to me about it,” Steve reassured her. “I just thought I’d offer—”

His words were cut off by the sound of Aisley’s sobbing. “I thought I knew him. I thought that maybe he wasn’t as bad as everyone kept saying he was. But after this…I see he’s a completely different person now,” Aisley said through her tears. Her words flowed from her lips without her control. “The royal family…they always treated me like I was one of them. Like I was royalty too. And Thor and Loki were my very best friends. But Loki…Loki was the one who always made me feel like I truly belonged.”

Steve frowned and pulled the young goddess into his embrace. He knew how she felt. Even when his life was horrible, even when he felt as though he had no place in this world, Bucky would remind him that he had a purpose. That he was worth much more than he thought he was.

“I thought I could help him. I thought I could save him from the darkness that was slowly consuming him,” Aisley continued, slowly steadying her breathing a she felt Cap’s chest rise and collapse. She wrapped her arms around his waist. “The worst part is…I still don’t think he’s a terrible person. Perhaps I’m a bad person for thinking that.”

“You’re not a bad person,” Steve assured her, rubbing a hand up and down her back. He could feel her breathing becoming slower and steadier. “You just have a big heart. You have a lot of faith in the people you care about. Sometimes the world needs people like you.”

Aisley smiled and squeezed him tight before releasing him. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “You must think I’m mad. I apologize for the tears, I just…I suppose I needed to release them.”

“Well, I’m always here for you if you need to release anymore tears,” Steve smiled. “And even if you just want to casually chat. I’m here.”

Aisley chuckled lightly. “Thank you, Captain Rogers.”

“Please, call me Steve.”

“Alright then, Steve.”

“Now get some rest. It’s been a long day,” said Steve. He stood up and headed towards the connected bathroom to change out of his star-spangled uniform.

“Yes Captain,” Aisley teased with a playful salute towards him.

Her night clothes ended up being a Guns ‘n Roses t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, both of which had been borrowed from Tony. Midgardian clothing was quite comfortable. The moment she placed her head on the fluffy pillow, she was out like a light.


	27. Avengers - Paisley

Resting her head against Bruce’s shoulder, Paisley watches in quiet amusement as everyone sits quietly eating Shawarma.

Cap sits at the head of the table, his food already gone as he rests his chin on his fist which rests on the table. His eyes are barely open as he tries not to nod off. To his left is Aisley, her and Thor having some sort of unspoken competition to eat the most food, Aisley sometimes stealing his food while he glares back playfully and does the same. Next to them is Tony.

He leans back in his seat, chewing on his food quietly as he watches Natasha and Clint from across the table with questioning eyes.

Paisley sits at the corner between Tony and Bruce, not eating her food, just laying her head against Bruce’s shoulder as she wraps her arms around him, snuggling him the best she can while they’re sitting. Bruce sits at the end of the table, eating almost as much as the Asgardians, trying to replenish the energy he lost while he was Hulk.

Bruce glances at Paisley every so often, a small awed smile on his lips when he sees how comfortable and relaxed she is around him. He turned back into himself this time around because Paisley approached Hulk and asked politely, it was incredible.

Just what has this little spitfire done to completely gain the trust of Hulk in such a short about of time?

Shifting from across the table brings Paisley’s eyes to Natasha and Clint, both of whom are turned towards each other. Natasha is leaning forwards, one hand on her knee while the other is used to eat her food. Clint is the opposite, he’s leaned back, one leg propped up on the back of Natasha’s seat while his plate sits in his lap. The two spies are holding some sort of silent conversation.

Natasha sighs and shakes her head as Clint turns to face Paisley with questioning eyes.

“Alright. I have to ask. Earlier you commented on how hot Aisley and Natasha were, now you’re snuggling with Dr. Banner. What gives? Are you bisexual?” he questions with a small pout.

Paisley chuckles, moving her head so her forehead is pressed against Bruce’s arm before she pulls away to sit up correctly. She looks around, seeing that everyone is looking at her too, wondering the same thing. With the exception of Steve whom is steadily falling asleep.

Paisley chuckles again and sighs, brushing back some of her hair as she smirks at them all. “I’m not bisexual. It’s called Pansexual. It means I like everyone no matter the gender,” Paisley shrugs.

Clint blinks, “isn’t that Bisexual?”

Paisley rolls her eyes. “No. To be Bi means I’d only like girls and guys. I, however, like everyone. Be girl, guy, transgender, no gender. I like ‘em all,” she explains.

Tony nods. “I dig it.”

Aisley nods, still eating as she comments, “I too enjoy various genders.” The comment makes everyone whip around to stare at her. Seeing their looks, Aisley raises a brow. “What?” she asks.

Paisley grins. “Let me guess, you like ass?” the comment has Thor choking on his food, causing Aisley to laugh, patting him on the back. Paisley smirks and continues. “I love a nice ass, though what really draws me in are shoulders.”

Aisley nods. “Yes, an ass is very important. I also enjoy backs, they’re… _mesmerizing_. Much like eyes,” she smirks.

Paisley grins, nodding in agreement. “Eyes! God! I love a pair of soulful eyes,” Paisley says with a dreamy sigh, leaning into Bruce’s side, making him blush.

Paisley looks up at him, a playful smile on her lips as she winks at him.

Bruce smiles back, his eyes darting to her lips for a split second, enough for Paisley to know what he’s thinking.

Natasha and Clint smirk at one another, not missing the interaction.

“So, does that mean you two are a thing or something?” Clint asks, pointing between Paisley and Bruce.

Paisley looks at Bruce with a raised eyebrow, he kind of shrugs with a small smile, making Paisley grin in return. “’Or something’ sums it up, for now,” Paisley responds, leaning away from Bruce, instead of holding his hand.

“’For now?’ I don’t know how much more of these looks from you two I can take. Besides, shouldn’t the big guy ask for my approval?” Tony asks, looking between the two with a mischievous smirk.

Paisley rolls her eyes. “As if. That’s if Bruce wants to marry me. He can date me all he wants without talking to you,” Paisley grins, eating some of Bruce’s food. She hadn’t bothered getting her own, not with how emotionally unstable the battle made her. She didn’t really feel like eating too much.

Paisley glances down at Steve, smirking when she sees he finally gave in and is now sleeping, his head still propped up by his arm. “Looks like we’re gonna need to carry Steve back. I don’t blame him, I’m ready to sleep for a week,” Paisley comments, snuggling Bruce’s shoulder again.

Tony smirks. “Guess it’s time to head home. You all are welcome to stay in any of the rooms not destroyed by aliens at my tower,” he offers, standing from the table.

The movement has Steve jolting awake. He looks around, disoriented before turning to Aisley questionably. Aisley says something quietly to him and he nods, both of them standing as he places a hand on her shoulder.

“Sure. I hear the rooms are like a five-star hotel. That’s not a rumor right?” Clint asks with a smirk as he and Natasha stand almost in sync.

Tony smirks. “Even better,” promises before turning to Paisley and Bruce with questioning eyes.

Paisley bites her lip, turning to Bruce as she whispers. “I live just outside of Brooklyn. It’s remote and quiet…would you like to stay with me for a bit?” she asks hesitantly.

Bruce blinks at her in surprise, making Paisley look away. “I-it’s alright if you don’t want to. I just…” Paisley is cut off as Bruce gently places a hand on her cheek, making her look up at him.

“I’d love to. We can always visit them at the tower,” he shrugs.

Paisley grins brightly and jumps up, hugging Bruce tightly and making him chuckle as she hugs her back before setting her back down on her feet.

“Well then, what was that all about?” Tony asks, drawing their attention back to him.

Paisley grins. “Thank you for the offer, Dad, but Bruce and I will be staying at my place for now,” she says as she threads her fingers through Bruce’s. Bruce gives them a squeeze as he nods.

Clint lets out a whistle, winking at the two suggestively.

Paisley smirks back, barking out a laugh while Bruce turns scarlet, ducking his head down a bit as she rubs the back of his neck.

“That’s our cue to leave. Don’t worry Bruce and I will visit and be back to see the Asgardian’s off. See ya tomorrow,” Paisley winks, letting go of Bruce’s hand so she can punch in the coordinates for her house. “Hold on tight, Handsome,” Paisley smirks as she hovers her hand over the button, wiggling her hips in indication.

Bruce shakes his head with a laugh as he steps behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “We’ll be back tomorrow,” Bruce says as Paisley leans back into his warmth before hitting the button, both disappearing in a blue light.

When they reappear, it’s in front of a gravel driveway that leads up to a small, one-story light blue house with white accents and a black door. Surrounding the house is some greenery and a single apple tree. Very uncommon for the area that’s just dessert for miles, the city a dot in the distance.

Bruce notices a black mailbox that reads ‘CHASE’ with no address numbers. Looking at Paisley with a raised eyebrow, she shrugs with a smirk. “The post office knows who I am. Now come on, I need a shower and nap,” she sighs, grabbing Bruce’s hand as she pulls him up the gravel pathway towards the house.

There are white stairs leading up to a porch with a swing bench, rocking chair, and a small table. Paisley sighs happily as she looks down at her welcome mat that says ‘go away.’ “Under the mat is a landmine,” she says casually, laughing when Bruce takes a step back in shock.

Bruce then cracks a smile and rolls his eyes with crossed arms, “who gave you a landmine?” he asks.

Paisley smirks, lifting the mat to show him the hologram. “No one. But it does scare away ignorant people who stumble upon my little house. Let’s go,” she laughs, placing her eye near the peephole.

It beeps, a blue light scanning her eye before beeping twice as something clicks. Paisley grins, pulling the door open, “better than a key” she shrugs as they step into her house, kicking her shoes off by the door.

“Mama’s home and I brought a guest!” Paisley yells into the silence of her home while Bruce closes the door and discards his borrowed shoes at the door.

Suddenly music starts playing through the house, something loud that makes Bruce jump before it’s turned down a bit, becoming a soft sound in the background.

“Sorry, my system was on the highest setting when Fury and I left,” Paisley says with a shrug before pulling out her phone and placing it on the granite counter in her modern-looking kitchen. “B.A.S.I.S. set us up! I want to be able to start working on two communicator bracelets compatible with my teleporter tonight!” Paisley calls to the air.

 **“Sure thing, Ms. Paisley. Should I add Dr. Banner as a friendly on the house’s guest list?”** comes the teenage voice of Paisley’s A.I.

Paisley grins. “Of course. Put his name as Bruce though. You know I’m not formal,” she says, watching Bruce as she says it.

Bruce for his part is looking around in wonder, taking in every bit of Paisley’s cute little house. He takes a breath before releasing it and smiling contently, his eyes now on Paisley. “It’s calm, safe, and very you,” he comments.

Paisley shrugs. “My house is my baby. It looks casual and small but there’s a lab underground and most of the house is powered like Tony’s place. I just don’t like the eccentric look,” she explains, moving to a hallway connected to the kitchen. “You coming, Handsome?” she calls.

Bruce gives a small smile, following Paisley. His smile widens when she shows him the guest room, full of soft yellows and white with a bed, side table, dresser, and connecting bathroom.

“I swear, complete coincidence that it’s your favorite color,” Paisley says sheepishly as she looks around the room. “I have a different color theme for every room. This one is yellow and white, like a banana; my room is blue and black; the kitchen is grey and black; the living room is lavender and plum; I have a peach library with red accents, and a pink bathroom with bits of green to make it like a watermelon. I know, it’s silly,” Paisley says while blushing.

Bruce grins, hugging Paisley as he kisses her head sweetly. “I think it’s creative. Make’s the house you,” he shrugs.

Paisley smiles appreciatively. “Thanks, Bruce” she sighs. “Ok. Showers. I always have spare clothes here for any random travelers that I may decide to help. Take your pick in the dresser and wash up. We meet back in the living room for some comedy movies, sound good?” Paisley asks as she pulls away.

Bruce grins, kissing her head again as he nods. “Sounds like a plan,” he says in a whisper, watching as Paisley smirks coyly before leaving him to get cleaned up.


	28. Avengers - Aisley

The next morning found Aisley standing in the damaged kitchen of Stark tower, rubble still scattered across the floor and countertops. Her blonde locks were messy and tangled and her aqua eyes still had dark circles beneath them. She yawned as she took another sip from her coffee, drinking it straight from the pot.

A familiar voice suddenly came from beside her. Aisley looked up and nearly jumped from her skin. Clint had appeared in the kitchen, grabbing the second coffee pot that was plugged in. “Looks like you and I had the same idea,” he chuckled, pouring sugar directly into the pot. “How come you’re not sleeping in like everybody else?”

Aisley gave a lazy shrug. “I have issues when it comes to sleeping.”

“Insomnia?”

“If that’s what you humans call it, then yes…insomnia.”

“I feel ya, kid.”

“Why does everyone call me kid?” Aisley asked, setting her coffee beside her. “Earth-wise, I am a grown adult. And Asgardian-wise I am much older than everyone here.”

Clint shrugged. “Force of habit, I guess,” he mumbled. “You’re new. Plus, you and the Stark kid have a sort of innocence to you. I guess that’s why.”

“I suppose you’re not wrong,” Aisley half-smiled. She certainly had a lot to learn about earth, so of course she would come off as a little innocent. If only the team could see her on Asgard. Causing mischief, but also being a leader and getting the princes out of trouble.

“So, a royal guard huh?” Clint continued in attempt to make conversation. “It must be hard to keep people like Loki in check.”

Aisley chuckled. “I can see how one would assume that,” she admitted. “But they are both rather hard to manage. Thor is impulsive, Loki is clever. Those traits never mixed very well. I would always yell at them about how it is my duty to keep them safe and out of trouble, but they wouldn’t listen.”

“I know how that is,” Clint chuckled. “I have a dog; his name is Lucky…he’s always getting into trouble.”

“I don’t exactly think that’s the same thing,” came another familiar voice. Natasha drifted into the kitchen to join them, ginger hair a curly mess and a black robe wrapped around her. She gave Clint a small kiss on the cheek before turning to the goddess. “Good morning, Aisley.”

“Morning, Agent Romanoff,” Aisley smiled gently.

Romanoff chuckled. “Please, call me Natasha.”

“Alright, Natasha.”

“So…now that this whole sibling drama is over,” Clint began, continuing their earlier conversation. “What are you gonna do once you get back to Asgard? Surely you can’t babysit the princes forever.”

“Clint.”

“It’s alright, Natasha,” Aisley chuckled. “I suppose once I get back to Asgard I’ll just…continue on with my duties as royal guard. The princes will need me…I guess. Gods know I would love to stay here on earth. But as of now, I cannot.”

“You should at least come back to visit,” Clint smiled. “I could show you my farmhouse. It’s nice and secluded out there. Quiet too…you know, if you’re into that sorta thing.”

Aisley smiled at the idea of a nice, quiet place. Secluded from the rest of the world. “That sounds very nice.”

“Well then, it’s a deal,” said Clint, offering a hand to the goddess. Her grip was tight as they shook on it. “If you come back to earth, I’m showing you my farmhouse.”

“I look forward to it.”


	29. Avengers - Paisley

Paisley yawns, opening her eyes as she stretches a bit, stopping when she feels a pair of arms holding her firmly, making it harder to stretch. Paisley looks around confused, seeing she’s laying down on her plum colored couch…against a warm chest.

Looking down, Paisley’s face warms we she sees Bruce sleeping peacefully under her, his arms holding her tightly. Paisley surmises that they must have fallen asleep at some point during their comedy marathon.

Paisley bites her lip to stop herself from giggling when she remembers how much fun they had laughing, being normal. At one point they had to pause because Bruce was laughing so hard he almost Hulked out.

Grinning to herself, Paisley quietly asks B.A.S.I.S. to take a picture, also asking the time.

**“It’s four thirty in the morning, Ms. Paisley”**

Paisley nods, she’d slept enough. She slowly and gently removes herself from Bruce, feeling sad at the loss of warmth.

The sleeping doctor groans a bit and curls up into himself, feeling the loss as well. Paisley frowns a bit, feel a ting of guilt. “B.A.S.I.S. notify me when Bruce wakes up. Also, if he asks, tell him I’m in my lab. He’s authorized to have full access to the house. Let him know there’s a fully stocked pantry,” Paisley quietly orders as she takes the lavender blanket she keeps on the back of the couch, laying it over Bruce.

 **“Will do, Ms. Paisley,”** B.A.S.I.S. says in a whispered voice.

 Paisley smiles lightly as she bends down to brush back some of Bruce’s soft chocolate curls. Paisley indulges a bit as she lightly pets his hair.

Bruce gives a deep sigh in his sleep, making Paisley bite her lip lightly as she retracts her hand, heading for her lab to start her new projects, having B.A.S.I.S. take another photo of Bruce.

It isn’t till around noon that B.A.S.I.S. interrupts Paisley’s loud music, **“Mr. Bruce is awake and asking for you. He’ll be down shortly,”** B.A.S.I.S. relays.

Paisley smiles, sitting back as she stretches from her hunched over position. She’d gotten quite a bit done and was proud of her work.

The elevator opens, and Paisley can’t fight the huge grin that takes over when she sees a still sleepy Bruce step out.

“Welcome to my evil lair!” Paisley calls, a thunder effect going off that causes Bruce to jump slightly before he looks around in awe. “Sorry, I have it set up to do that every time I say ‘evil lair’,” on cue, thunder strikes again, this time Bruce chuckles.

“I’m not surprised. I am impressed with your tech though,” Bruce says, still looking around the room as he slowly makes his way to the light table that Paisley’s at, currently working on some tech while the table displays a holographic version. “I thought you said you weren’t as fancy as Tony?” he questions when he’s next to her.

Paisley smirks, looking up through her eyelashes at the doctor. “That’s only in décor. When it comes to my lab, I can assure you I’ll use only the best and most advanced,” she explains, smirking secretively at the end. No one but S.H.I.E.L.D. knew that she worked with vibranium and they didn’t even know where she gets it from, that secret is all Paisley’s.

Bruce nods, looking over the holographic blueprints with a furrowed brow. “Are you making…phones?” he asks questionably.

Paisley smirks, looking down at the two touchscreens before her, the faces taken off of them so she can work on the insides. “Yep. Communicators that will work in outer space. They don’t need cell towers and you don’t even need to be on the same planet for them to work. My favorite part is the storage space, you wouldn’t believe how many games I’ve already put on them and there’s still more space. No lag or phone bill either. They’re perfect,” Paisley says proudly as she stares down at the advanced tech.

Bruce looks from the phones to Paisley in disbelief “That’s amazing! It’s unheard of, revolutionary! How do they work? What powers them? Do they need to be charged electrically or is it solar power? Is it built into the phone or is there some sort of portable charger station that goes with them?” Bruce’s questions keep on as he pulls his glasses out of his shirt pocket to look over the blueprints.

“No, no, Handsome,” Paisley says, plucking the glasses off of Bruce’s face before he can read anything as she dismisses the screens. “That’s my secret. I promised someone very important that I wouldn’t tell anyone how I make my tech or what it’s made of,” Paisley says apologetically, placing Bruce’s glasses back in his shirt pocket. “Now, let’s get some food at Stark Tower. I don’t feel like cooking and everyone should be up by now,” Paisley suggests as she puts the phones back together, stashing them in her desk before she grabs her black zip up hoodie and teleporter, heading for the elevator.

“You coming, Handsome?” she smirks, repeating her words from the day before.

Bruce looks over at her, still reeling from all that had just been said to him.

Paisley gives him a lopsided smile, walking back over as she takes both of Bruce’s hands in her own. “Okay listen, I use a very special material in the tech I make. Something that if I told you about, you’d be in danger. I won’t risk that, no one knows my tech like me and my supplier do. One day I’ll tell you, promise. It’s just that right now isn’t the best time. Okay?” she asks, bright blue eyes looking up into Bruce’s warm brown ones pleadingly.

Bruce sighs, breaking eye contact to look down at their joined hands. “Are you in danger, Paisley?” he asks quietly.

Paisley gives a small smile, shaking her head. “Of course not. I’m as safe as can be. It’s those I tell that will be in danger,” she shrugs.

Bruce takes the information in before nodding as he leans forwards to kiss Paisley on the forehead. “Alright then. I’ll wait till it’s the right time,” he promises, making Paisley smile in gratitude.

“Thank you. Now, how about we get to Stark Tower. I think we should hang out with Tony for a bit, what about you?” she asks, slowly moving backwards towards the door with Bruce’s hands in her own, leading him there.

Bruce chuckles and rolls his eyes. “You just want him to pay for lunch,” he teases as they enter the elevator.

Paisley sticks her tongue out. “Maybe,” comes the childish reply as the elevator begins moving up.

When it opens up, Paisley and Bruce step out into the bright peach and red library. “Okay, lets get dressed and meet back in the living room, I’ll teleport us,” Paisley smirks as she squeezes their still joined hands before letting go to head to her room.

Bruce chuckles and heads for his own room, getting ready for the day.


	30. Avengers - Paisley

“Everyone can stop their sulking now! I’m back!” comes Paisley’s greeting as she and Bruce teleport in the middle of Tony’s living room.

Clint and Natasha, both of whom are lounging on a couch together, watching a movie, nod in greeting while Steve looks up from a sketchbook he’d been doodling on in confusion.

Aisley and Thor are sitting near Steve, Aisley mesmerized by his sketching, and Tony is sitting at a bar, drinking already. “Hey, Kiddo! Did you and Brucie-bear have a fun night?” Tony smirks.

Clint starts giggling, waggling his eyebrows suggestively at the two doctors, making Bruce blush. Paisley smirks, however, and faces Tony dead on as she wraps an arm around Bruce’s waist, bringing him tightly against her chest.

“Of course. Lots of fun, all night long. We passed out on the couch we were so exhausted. Bruce almost Hulked out at one point, but I handled it. Honestly, I had no idea he could even make those sounds, amazing,” Paisley says, a Cheshire cat grin gracing her lips as everyone in the room looks at the two disbelievingly, all but Natasha.

She wasn’t lying, just smudging the truth a bit. They did do all of that last night, Paisley just forgot to mention that it was because they were laughing so hard from comedy films, not them having sex. Not her fault if they’re minds when to something dirty.

Steve doesn’t look up from his sketchbook, but his ears are tinted pink as he focuses even harder on his drawing, letting Paisley know that his mind wasn’t as innocent as most thought. But he was wise enough to keep his shock to himself, unlike the other two…

 _“Oh my,”_ Aisley says, letting out a short laugh. “Hulk smash.” She winks, causing Paisley to chuckle and wink back.

“I was joking!” Tony squeaks, his voice much higher than normal as he tries to burn the mental images of his daughter and Bruce actually doing something about their obvious feelings for one another. “I didn’t actually think you did it!”

Clint looks at Bruce as if he’s seeing him for the first time. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Banner. Wow, um, I’m just…wow. You Hulked out?” he asks incredulously.

Bruce sighs, looking down at Paisley in exasperation as if to say, ‘really?’.

Paisley just shrugs innocently as she heads to the bar, making herself a drink.

Bruce sighs and shakes his head, turning to Clint as he corrects. “We had fun laughing at comedy movies all night. I almost Hulked out because I was laughing so hard. Paisley thought the way I laughed was funny for some reason. We were tired from all the laughing and fell asleep on the couch, our clothes fully intact. Nothing happened,” he explains to Clint’s shocked face.

Clint and Tony round on Paisley in accusation. “How dare you! I believed you!” Tony starts, Clint nodding in agreement.

Paisley cackles in her seat at the bar. “I said all of that too! Your dirty minds took you down the wrong road, you should be ashamed! Natasha didn’t think of it that way, right?” Paisley asks the quiet assassin who’s been smirking this whole time.

“Nope, not at all. I could tell by Bruce’s face that it was innocent,” Natasha shrugs.

Tony and Clint pause, remembering it all before they both sit back to sulk at being caught in the wrong.

“Okay, whatever. I’ll admit, I saw it differently. Now, onto a new topic. Food. I know we haven’t really talked, and I want you and Brucie-bear to go to lunch with me,” Tony declares as he jumps to his feet.

Steve, seeing that they’re all about to leave, stands and closes his sketchbook. “Paisley, may I have a word with you before you go?” he asks lightly.

Paisley blinks in surprise, looking back at Tony and Bruce, both of whom had been headed towards the elevators. “I’ll catch up,” she shrugs.

The two nod, walking off as Tony tells Bruce he can pick which car they use.

Natasha, Clint, and the Asgardians take that as they’re cue to leave as well, making it so Steve and Paisley are alone.

Steve sighs, taking a seat at the bar with Paisley, staring at his hands on the shiny black table. “About the fight…” Steve starts, looking over at Paisley. “You did great. I underestimated you and I shouldn’t have, for that I’m sorry. Thank you for being stubborn, I needed the wakeup call,” he smiles.

Paisley gives him a gentle smile, resting her hand on his arm. “Hey, I get it. I’m not much. It was a life or death fight, you were worried about us. It’s just…there’s so much more to me than my smarts, I can fight with J.A.R.V.I.S.’ help, I know weak points in the body, I know how to save lives…I just haven’t done it before, your doubt was understandable. I needed to prove that I was more, you know?” Paisley asks, looking at Steve with fiery eyes.

Steve nods, once again seeing himself in Paisley. “I understand more than most. I was just a sick kid from Brooklyn. Without my friend Bucky, I would have been dead long before the war. I had so much to prove. I needed to prove to myself and others that my body didn’t define me, I was more. I wanted to fight, then I did. I get where you’re coming from and I have confidence in you, you’re just as important to the team, just as useful,” Steve assures.

Paisley smiles brightly. “Thank you, Steve. It means a lot coming from you,” she says, standing from her seat.

Steve smiles too, “you know, I think you should start taking fighting classes, making it so you don’t have to rely on Stark tech to fight,” he suggests.

Paisley laughs. “Sure thing. Why don’t you teach me? Maybe you could tell me stories about my grandfather while you’re at it?” Paisley asks.

Steve chuckles, looking down with a smile before he looks up and nods. “Sounds like a plan. See you later, Paisley,” he nods.

Paisley grins, waving as she enters the elevator, heading for the garage.

Several hours later finds Paisley, Tony, and Bruce quietly laughing at an extravagant restaurant.

“OK, Wait. You’re telling me that you hacked the pentagon and S.H.I.E.L.D. at the same time and bounced the signals around so it looked like they were hacking each other, and no one even knew it was you or what was going on?” Tony laughs.

Paisley giggles mischievously, nodding, “I think Eyepatch knew. It was around the time they’d started looking into me, I wanted to make a good first impression. Needless to say, Eyepatch isn’t thrilled when I’m around and not busy. I did eventually tell them it was me, making them add me to a list that I now know was the Avengers Initiative,” Paisley shrugs.

Bruce chuckles as he sips on his drink. They’d long past finished eating and were now just relaxing and talking, trying to get to know each other.

“So, Dad, tell me some more stories of your wilder days. Back when you didn’t have Pepper on your arm,” Paisley smirks, leaning on the table.

Tony grins, leaning back as he looks up at the ceiling, retelling a wild story about a really drunk night in Europe.

Bruce watches the two interact, a content smile on his face as the two geniuses laugh and tell stories back and forth, Tony’s more risqué than Paisley’s, which are mostly pranks.

The two had a lot in common and got along great now that they’d almost lost each other. The thought reminded Bruce that he didn’t want to waste time being shy. He has strong feelings for Paisley that he couldn’t deny. The Hulk showed them whenever he was in control. Hulk has always been an outward expression of Bruce’s most inner feelings, he knew that.

When he heard that Hulk treated Paisley differently, gently, it made him realize he had grown attached to the fiery doctor. He knew he needed to say something, knew she felt the same way, why else would she insist on being around him, touching him the way she did, flirting. If they were going to put their lives on the line more after this, Bruce wanted to do it with Paisley by his side.

“Bruce? Bruce!” Paisley calls, placing an arm on Bruce’s arm to get his attention.

Bruce blinks, seeing both Starks staring at him in slight concern.

“Hm? Sorry, I was just thinking,” he says with a small smile.

Paisley nods, giving a small laugh. “We could tell. You zoned out on us. We’re ready to go, you coming?” she asks, standing from her seat, Tony following close behind.

Bruce nods, standing as well as he goes around the table, bolding taking Paisley’s hand in his own.

Paisley looks at their interlocked fingers before looking up and grinning, wrapping her other arm around his.

“Alright lovebirds let’s get going. My lab is calling my name,” Tony smirks.

Paisley rolls her eyes. “You’re just jealous that Bruce likes me better,” she smirks.

Tony gasps in mock outrage. “How dare you! Brucie-bear obviously loves me more! Bros before hoes!” Tony declares as they make it outside and Tony links his arm with Bruce’s free one.

Now it’s Paisley’s turn to gasp. “Ovaries before brovaries! Besides, I am not the hoe! If anyone, that honor is all yours,” Paisley smirks.

Tony narrows his eyes before nodding. “Touché. But I love him more!” he whines, moving so he’s now hugging Bruce.

Bruce sighs in exasperation, but then pauses as Paisley steps forwards and tickles Tony’s sides till he lets go.

Paisley then takes his place, hugging Bruce tightly. “I doubt that. I care about the little muffin more. I want to date him! You just want to use him for his brain!” she argues.

Tony suddenly drops the pout and instead smirks triumphantly as he crosses his arms.

Paisley and Bruce freeze.

She’d just admitted that she wanted a relationship. That she cared about him like he did her.

Tony nods, pushing his shades onto his face as the chauffeur pulls up with their car. “My work here is done,” he sighs as he slides into the driver’s seat like the diva he is.

“D-did you mean that?” Bruce asks, ducking his head a bit.

Paisley gives a small smile, shrugging. “Of course…if you want…maybe we could test it out? Get to know each other?” she asks.

Bruce grins sweetly at Paisley, cupping her face in his hand as he steps forwards, about to respond when Tony starts obnoxiously honking the horn, causing the two to jump apart.

Rolling the windows down, Tony grins at the doctors. “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I ruining the moment? I’m _so_ sorry,” he asks with faux sincerity.

Bruce sighs for the millionth time while Paisley chuckles and pats Bruce’s arm. “We can talk later, Handsome,” she winks as she gets into the car, Bruce following with a content smile.


	31. Avengers - Aisley

The few days she had spent on earth after the battle had been quite nice. This planet was not what she had expected. There seemed to be an unspoken rule among humans that, despite their differences, they’re all still beings. Living, breathing beings who each have their own unique life. The Asgardians had yet to leave but Aisley was already eager to return. She would certainly miss her friends. The captain, the archer, the scientists.

Speaking of…

As she turned the corner and wandered into the damaged living room, she noticed Dr. Banner and Paisley having a quiet conversation among themselves. Bruce stood from the couch and informed the young woman that he would see her back at the house soon, kissing her on the head as he did so.

Once he was out of sight, Aisley took the liberty of plopping down on the couch next to her friend, stealing the spot which was formerly occupied by Bruce. Instead of speaking, she simply nudged the fiery redhead and gave her a wink.

“Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re gonna say,” Paisley remarked as she rolled her eyes, smirking fondly at her friend.

“I am very happy for you,” Aisley beamed. “They need you, you know. Banner and Hulk. They need someone who can see them for who they truly are. Not just together, but individually. You see them both in a new light that no other has ever seen before. They admire that. As do I.”

Paisley gave a small smile. “Thanks,” she said, then glanced up at the goddess with a raised eyebrow, her eyes holding a mischievousness to them that reminded Aisley of the older Stark. “So, what about you? When do you think you’ll meet someone?”

Aisley shook her head, strands of blonde hair falling in her face. “Oh, no, no,” she chuckled. “Crushes may arise here and there, but love…love is a different concept. It’s strange.”

Paisley shrugged, smirking lightly. “You never know. Fate has a funny way of making you see the world differently. I honestly thought I’d never meet anyone, I was wrong,” Paisley said fondly, a glow in her eyes that hadn’t been their when they had first met.

Aisley glanced down at her palms with a small smile. She appreciated Paisley’s faith in her. Even from the beginning, she was the first to give her a chance. The first to accept the Jell-O. She wanted to tell the woman how much she had grown to appreciate her in a such a short amount of time. How much she admired her determination to protect others. But the only thing Aisley could manage to say was “I’m going to miss you, my friend.”

Dammit. Why must she always suppress her feelings? Her whole life she was trained to be a guard. Unattached. Reserved. Emotionless. She had clearly failed in that department. Aisley was always so passionate and unafraid to express her anger, so why couldn’t she do something as simple as telling her friend how much she appreciates her?

Paisley smiled widely, her eyes bright. “You trying to say goodbye to me?” she asked with a raised brow. “As far as I’m concerned, the only way to say goodbye to me is by dying. Besides, we’ll keep in touch.” she smiled gently, placing a hand on Aisley’s shoulder. “As strange as it must sound, I’ve grown attached to you. I’ve never really had a friend before, and I sure as hell don’t plan on losing you now that I’ve met you. So, I may or may not have let my genius mind create a super cool, extravagant souvenir for you to take back with you,” Paisley said with shining eyes.

Aisley watched Paisley curiously, wondering what this mortal had been up to now. She raised both eyebrows in surprise when the fiery haired scientist extracted two small technological devices from her back pockets, a grin on her face. They appeared to be transparent rectangles.

“Glass?” the goddess asked as her friend handed her one. She placed it in front of her eye and peered through it.

Paisley snorted out a laugh, shaking her head as she started fiddling with the other glass device, a hologram appearing on the small screen. “These, my poor uncultured friend, are called Stark phones. Albeit they’re far superior to anything my father had made but that’s to be expected since I made them,” Paisley smirked. “It’s a way for us to communicate while you’re back on Asgard. And no, it is not sorcery.” Paisley added the last part when she saw Aisley’s mouth open.

Aisley promptly closed her mouth, instead watching Paisley fervently as she patiently explained how to use the device so the two could communicate during their time away from one another.

The goddess gazed down at her Stark phone for a moment, soaking in all the information she had just received from Paisley, before giving the scientist a wide smile. “These sound like brilliant devices,” she complimented, placing the device in the pocket of her button-down shirt which had been borrowed from Clint. “It was very generous of you to make these for us. I will be sure to update you with everything that happens back on Asgard.”

Paisley snorted. “Yeah, I don’t doubt that. I’ll keep you informed about the goings on here. I’m thinking of moving into the Tower for a bit, getting to know my dad some more, you know?” Paisley smiled, bumping her shoulder against Aisley’s in a familiar manner. “Anyways, I guess I should get going. I promised Bruce that I’d cook a homecooked meal for him tonight. See you tomorrow for the departure?” she asked as she stood from the couch, stretching in the process.

Aisley stood as well, releasing her hair from its messy ponytail. “I look forward to it,” she assured her friend. With that, the scientist pressed a button on her teleporter and vanished from the room. Glancing out of the shattered window, the goddess realized it was much later than she thought. Pink and orange was already creeping across the sky due to the sun slowly setting in the horizon.

The young warrior smiled to herself. She was going to miss this place. But now it was time to go home.


	32. Avengers - Paisley

The next day finds Paisley and Bruce relaxing on one of the luxurious couches in Stark Tower. They’d talked the night before, confessing their feelings and deciding that they’d give it a shot as an official couple, starting slow, kissing and snuggling only. Not only were they going slow because this was all new, but because Bruce could Hulk out if they weren’t careful. But that didn’t mean Paisley wouldn’t kiss his lips passionately every now and then.

“I was wondering. Do you think we should stay in the Tower for a little while, help my dad rebuild and all that?” Paisley asks as she snuggles deeper into Bruce’s embrace, her nose buried in his chest and her arms wrapped tightly around his waist.

Bruce shrugs, staring into space as he absentmindedly plays with Paisley’s red curls. “That’s up to you. Whatever you want, my Dove,” Bruce says softly.

Paisley blinks and moves so she’s leaning over Bruce slightly, a small grin on her lips as she catches his attention. “Dove?” she questions, raising a delicate brow.

Bruce blushes a bit, the nervous side of him coming out a bit as he blinks, looking into Paisley’s shining gunmetal eyes. “Um, yes. You call me Handsome, s-so I wanted to call you something. If you don’t like it, I can stop…”

Bruce is cut off by Paisley’s lips on his, soft where his are rough. Paisley’s lips are passionate, while Bruce tries to process what’s going on, eventually stopping as he joins the kiss. This causes Paisley to grin as she lightly bites his lip before pulling away, Bruce being left to try and control his emotions before he Hulks out.

“I like it. It’s cheesy, just like you,” Paisley smirks, settling back into Bruce’s side while they both smile contently.

“So, perhaps you would ask my dad if he needs help with the Tower, and if he’d be alright with us staying her for a while, it could be fun,” Paisley says, tracing small circles on Bruce’s clothed bicep.

Aisley chooses that moment to enter the living room, glancing over at the new couple on the sofa.

“Yeah, I’ll go do that. Give you and Aisley some time to hang out, “Bruce says as Paisley moves off him, so he can stand. “I might get trapped in a long-winded conversation with Tony, so I suggest you save yourself by heading home first, I’ll make it back eventually,” he chuckles fondly, kissing Paisley on the forehead before making his way towards the elevators in search of the notorious playboy.

Aisley immediately claims his spot on the couch, nudging the scientist with a wink and knowing smile.

Paisley rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re gonna say,” she remarks, smirking fondly at her friend.

“I am very happy for you,” Aisley grins brightly. “They need you, you know. Banner and Hulk. They need someone who can see them for who they truly are. Not just together, but individually. You see them both in a new light that no other has ever seen before. They admire that. As do I.”

Paisley gave a small smile, touched by her friend’s words. Paisley was never needed before, no one really hung out with her in the past and she didn’t interact with too many people before joining this mismatched team of superhumans and gods. “Thanks,” she says, leaving the words unspoken. Then, feeling the conversation is a bit too serious for her, she leans towards the young goddess, her eyes as mischievous as her father’s as she asks, “So, what about you? When do you think you’ll meet someone?”

Aisley shakes her head. “Oh, no, no,” she chuckles, sounding a bit awkward to Paisley’s ears. “Crushes may arise here and there, but love…love is a different concept. It’s strange,” she explains.

Paisley shrugs, smirking lightly, “you never know. Fate has a funny way of making you see the world differently. I honestly thought I’d never meet anyone. I was wrong,” Paisley said fondly, thinking over how much she’s changed since meeting Bruce. She felt…lighter, happier. Like she finally knows what she’s doing with her life.

Looking up at Aisley, Paisley can see strong emotions behind the Asgardian’s open eyes, can see how much Paisley’s words mean to her. “I’m going to miss you, my friend,” Aisley says fondly, conveying all the unspoken things she wants to say to Paisley with that once sentence. The implication hits Paisley harder than she wants to admit.

Seeing someone that would miss her, that cared for her. Someone she could confidently call friend, it made Paisley’s heart clench. She detested goodbyes, they only meant one thing to her throughout her life.

Paisley smiles widely, despite the building pressure in her chest, trying to appear as cocky as always. “You trying to say goodbye to me?” she asks with a raised brow. “As far as I’m concerned, the only way to say goodbye to me is by dying.” Though she says it lightly, she can feel a weight in her chest by how true the words are. It’s the only way anyone has ever left her in the past. Her mother, her adopted mother, some of the nice old ladies from the orphanage. Goodbyes haunted Paisley at night.

“Besides,” Paisley says, dragging herself from her thoughts. “We’ll keep in touch.” she says with a gentle smile as she places a hand on Aisley’s shoulder. “As strange as it must sound, I’ve grown attached to you. I’ve never really had a friend before, and I sure as hell don’t plan on losing you now that I’ve met you. So, I may or may not have let my genius mind create a super cool, extravagant souvenir for you to take back with you,” Paisley says with shining eyes, her chest starting to hurt less the more she talks.

Paisley grins widely as she pulls the two Stark phones she’d built the day before out of her back pocket, holding out one of the glass screens to Aisley.

Aisley takes it from Paisley’s hand, a confused look on her face. “Glass?” she questions, holding the Stark phone up to her eye, looking through it as if it were a magnifying glass.

Paisley snorts, shaking her head as she turns on her Stark phone, moving slowly so Aisley can see how she works it. “These, my poor uncultured friend, are called Stark phones. Albeit they’re far superior to anything my father had made but that’s to be expected since I made them,” Paisley smirks. “It’s a way for us to communicate while you’re back on Asgard. And no, it is not sorcery.” Paisley adds, seeing Aisley was about to call it just that.

Aisley instead closes her mouth, watching Paisley intensely as said doctor goes over what’s what and how everything works, making sure the Asgardian knows how to take care of it and won’t accidently break it, not that she could. It was virtually indestructible and water proof.

By the end of Paisley’s lecture on proper phone care, Aisley was staring down at her Stark phone, lost in thought. “These sound like brilliant devices,” she compliments, placing the device in the pocket of her button-down shirt. “It was very generous of you to make these for us. I will be sure to update you with everything that happens back on Asgard.”

Paisley snorts. “Yeah, I don’t doubt that. I’ll keep you informed about the goings on here. I’m thinking of moving into the Tower for a bit, getting to know my dad some more, you know?” Paisley smiles, bumping her shoulder against Aisley’s. “Anyways, I guess I should get going. I promised Bruce that I’d cook a homecooked meal for him tonight. See you tomorrow for the departure?” she asks as she stands from the couch, stretching to work out the kinks in her back.

Aisley stands as well, releasing her hair from its messy ponytail. “I look forward to it,” the Asgardian nods while Paisley presses a button on her teleporter, disappearing in an instant.


	33. Avengers - Aisley

Wearing leather and metal was almost a strange feeling now. She had gotten quite used to simple earth clothing.

Aisley stared into the body-length mirror that had been placed in her and Steve’s shared room. Her silver armor and olive-green one-piece were still tainted with marks and dents from Loki’s little war. She couldn’t help but sigh as she placed her chainmail skirt on her hips. She didn’t want to go.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Captain Rogers had appeared in the doorway. He wore a brown jacket with a blue collared shirt beneath. “Ready to go?”

Aisley shrugged as she draped her plum purple cape across her shoulders. “No,” she answered with a frown.

Steve placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder as she approached the doorway. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be back soon enough.”

An hour or so passed and Aisley found herself standing beside the princes of Asgard once again. Everyone had come to say goodbye. The assassins, the scientist, the captain, the Starks. They were all there.

Aisley couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Paisley holding hands with Bruce.

Tony approached the Asgardians, handing Thor a container with the Tesseract inside. Aisley’s heart skipped a beat at the sight. She knew what that cube was capable of.

Glancing around, she began to give one last wave of goodbye to her new friends. Before she could even lift her hand, however, Paisley darted towards her. Her friend’s sudden embrace caught her off guard. Aisley smiled, wrapping her arms around the redhead’s neck. The goddess hadn’t been hugged in a long time. She nearly forgot how nice it felt.

“You’re gonna come back and see me, right?” Paisley winked, releasing the Asgardian.

Aisley chuckled. “Of course! You’re family now, I’d never leave you behind.”

Paisley’s eyes brightened as she smiled at her friend. Once she was at Bruce’s side again, Thor offered his hand to the youngest Asgardian.

With a simple twist of the Tesseract’s container, blue light surrounded the trio and Aisley began to feel weightless. Soon enough, they were back in the spherical structure known as the Bifrost.

A smiled stretched across the goddess’ face at the sound of Heimdall’s voice.

She was home.


	34. Avengers - Paisley

The next day, Paisley is dressed in a black MCR shirt and short-sleeved grey button up with baggy black jeans and her combat boots. Her Hair is up in a messy bun and looking the complete opposite of Bruce who’s dressed in a pale-yellow button up and khaki slacks.

The two hold hands as they look around their small group. Everyone had gathered around to see off the Asgardian trio.

Tony approaches them, handing Thor a container with the Tesseract inside.

This was it. They’d all go home after this until the search for who knows how long till they were all needed again. They were a team now.

Paisley watches as Aisley looks around, silently saying goodbye to everyone. It broke Paisley’s heart. She couldn’t take it.

Letting go of Bruce’s hand, Paisley runs forwards into Aisley’s chest, hugging the stunned Asgardian tightly until she hugs back just as tightly. “You’re gonna come back and see me, right?” Paisley winks, releasing Aisley.

The taller woman chuckles. “Of course! You’re family now, I’d never leave you behind.”

Paisley’s eyes brighten as she smiles at her friend, moving away to stand back at Bruce’s side once more.

Thor offers his hand to Aisley and with a twist of the Tesseract’s container, blue light surrounds the trio, and they disappear.

Paisley sighs, sagging against Bruce as he moves his arm to wrap around her shoulders.

Everyone exchanges farewells, except Paisley who insists that this isn’t goodbye, as they head their separate ways.

Tony, Bruce, and Paisley hop into one of Tony’s cars together, Paisley smirking to herself as she leans her head back against the headrest, enjoying the wind against her face while she muses over how much she’s gained in the past couple of days.

A father, friends, teammates, a best friend, a boyfriend. The little orphan girl inside of her was beaming with happiness, her wish finally coming true.

Almost dying aside, Paisley was glad that Loki decided to try and take over the world, because now she had a family.


End file.
